Estimating Water Quality Benefits

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for estimating, ex ante, the benefits of water quality change associated with lake rehabilitation/stabilization projects. The method envolves first, presenting the theoretical basis from which the empirical analysis will proceed; second, establishing the relationship between an objective measurement of water quality utilized by water resource experts and the ratings of lake users; third, presenting a model including recreators' ratings of water quality; and fourth, synthesizing these components by advancing a method which is applied to a possible decision-making situation