Cultural eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HABs) are complex, costly issues facing decision makers. When designed in collaboration with impacted communities, economic valuation of lake ecosystem services (ES) can contribute to informed environmental decision-making by quantifying the economic benefits of lake restoration and understanding the trade-offs people are willing to make amongst ES. In collaboration with the surrounding community, we developed and implemented a discrete choice experiment survey to understand people’s preferences and willingness to pay for restoring a Canadian lake that has been experiencing worsening water quality issues, including more frequent HAB events. Responses to the choice experiment were analyzed using choice models, revealing that the aggregate annual economic benefits of lake restoration across different model specifications ranged from CAD 27 to 55 million, which is substantially greater than estimated costs of lake restoration. Model outputs also reveal that survey respondents had strong preferences for reducing HAB events and for non-use ES such as biodiversity, whereas preferences for recreational fishing were more divided. The results of this study (i) contribute to the growing literature showing substantial benefits to society from restoring lakes and mitigating HABs, and (ii) demonstrate that collaborative valuation techniques are a valuable tool for informing lake decision-making by revealing acceptable trade-offs and priorities amongst lake ES.

Primary Presenter: Danielle Spence, University of Saskatchewan (danielle.spence@usask.ca)

Authors:

Danielle Spence, University of Saskatchewan  (danielle.spence@usask.ca)

Helen Baulch, University of Saskatchewan  (helen.baulch@usask.ca)

Patrick Lloyd-Smith, University of Saskatchewan  (patrick.lloydsmith@usask.ca)