EPA Water Quality Grant

Title: Estimating the Benefits of Stream Water Quality Improvements in Urbanizing Watersheds: An Ecological Production Function Approach

Investigators: Roger von Haefen (lead PI); co-PIs: Daniel Obenhour, George Van Houtven, Melissa Kenney; Investigators: Michael Gerst, Sasha Naumenko

Funding Agency: US EPA

Research Objectives:  To support EPA’s efforts to advance knowledge for conducting economic evaluations of environmental policies, the main objective of our proposed research is to develop and demonstrate methods for valuing the use and nonuse benefits of improving water quality in wadeable streams in urbanizing watersheds. These streams provide valuable ecosystem services and are subject to a combination of anthropogenic stressors that have led to pervasive degradation referred to as “urban stream syndrome.” Understanding how the general public perceives and values improvements in stream conditions is necessary to support EPA’s efforts to quantify the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvements.

Final Report: Report; Appendix 2A; Appendix 2B; Appendix 3A; Appendix 3B; Appendix 3C

Data: Zipped_Files (also available on Harvard's Dataverse here)