Choosing the optimal management option requires environmental risk managers and decision makers to evaluate diverse, and not always congruent, needs and interests of multiple stakeholders. Understanding the trade-offs of different options as well as their legal, economic, scientific, and technological implications is critical to performing accurate

Non-market valuation has become a broadly accepted and widely practiced means of measuring the economic values of the environment and natural resources. In this book, the authors provide a guide to the statistical and econometric practices that economists employ in estimating non-market values. The authors develop the econometric models that underlie the basic methods: contingent valuation, travel cost models, random utility models and hedonic models. They analyze the measurement of non-market values as a procedure with two steps: the estimation of parameters of demand and preference functions and the calculation of benefits from the estimated models. Each of the models is carefully developed from the preference function to the behavioral or response function that researchers observe. The models are then illustrated with datasets that characterize the kinds of data researchers typically deal with. The real world data and clarity of writing in this book will appeal to environmental economists, students, researchers and practitioners in multilateral banks and government agencies.

This book provides a systematic review of those economic approaches for valuing the environment and natural resources that use information on what people do, not what they say. The authors have worked on models of revealed preferences for valuing environmental and natural resources for several decades. The book provides a candid review of the major conceptual challenges and an exploration of neglected issues in the literature.

Nutrient recycling, habitat for plants and animals, flood control, and water supply are among the many beneficial services provided by aquatic ecosystems. In making decisions about human activities, such as draining a wetland for a housing development, it is essential to consider both the value of the development and the value of the ecosystem services that could be lost. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, their value is often overlooked in environmental decision-making. This report identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem servicesâ€"even intangible onesâ€"and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts.

Resource-management decisions, especially in the area of protecting and maintaining biodiversity, are usually incremental, limited in time by the ability to forecast conditions and human needs, and the result of tradeoffs between conservation and other management goals. The individual decisions may not have a major effect but can have a cumulative major effect. Perspectives on Biodiversity reviews current understanding of the value of biodiversity and the methods that are useful in assessing that value in particular circumstances. It recommends and details a list of components-including diversity of species, genetic variability within and among species, distribution of species across the ecosystem, the aesthetic satisfaction derived from diversity, and the duty to preserve and protect biodiversity. The book also recommends that more information about the role of biodiversity in sustaining natural resources be gathered and summarized in ways useful to managers. Acknowledging that decisions about biodiversity are necessarily qualitative and change over time because of the nonmarket nature of so many of the values, the committee recommends periodic reviews of management decisions.

This volume offers a snapshot of the research that is ongoing in the area of value transfer. It provides relevant input for increasing the quality of cost-benefit analyses of projects with environmental and health impacts. The volume includes papers by some of the most influential authors in the area and covers the latest developments in the field.

This book is about understanding the value of environmental services in South Asia. It provides an overview of different environmental problems in South Asia and examines how economic valuation techniques can be used to assess these problems. It brings together multiple case studies on valuation undertaken by economists and environmental scientists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka under the aegis of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). The book addresses the challenges of valuing environmental changes that are unique to developing countries. Each chapter starts with a description of an environmental problem and the valuation strategy used, followed by a discussion of estimation methods and results. It is designed to serve as a reference book for students, teachers, researchers, non-government organizations and practitioners of environmental valuation. Those interested in development and environmental economics, and natural resource management policies, will also find it useful.