Title: Water management and the valuation of indirect environmental services

Authors: Brooks Kaiser, James Roumasset

Addresses: Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, USA. ' University of Hawai'i, Manoa, HI, USA

Abstract: Comprehensive watershed planning and management requires valuation of the intermediate ecological services provided to the water resources. Valuation of forest cover as an ecological service is discussed in the context of three levels of decision-making, and illustrated for the Pearl Harbor/Ko|olau watershed (Hawai|i). Objectives of planning such as sustainable development do not require new criteria but augmentation of existing methods of income accounting and project valuation. Full income valuation implies that the value of water should incorporate the value of maintaining contributory degradable ecological capital. Valuation does not require using survey methods, even when the usual alternatives (hedonics, etc.) are not applicable.

Keywords: water management; indirect environmental services; service valuation; watershed management; watershed planning; intermediate ecological services; decision making; sustainable development; sustainability; income valuation; degradable ecological capital.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2000.053995

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2000 Vol.2 No.2, pp.102 - 122

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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