Putting Individual Lakes on the Map

Open online seminar with Kennet Christian Uggeldahl, Department of Food and Resource Economics.

About the seminar

Title: Putting Individual Lakes on the Map: A Spatially Explicit Stated Choice Experiment to Estimate Values of Lake Restoration in Denmark

The ecological state and water quality of many lakes in Europe remains poor, with some lakes likely to require costly restoration interventions to reach the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Effectively addressing the problem requires individual assessments of lakes, however, scientific knowledge related to quantifying the monetized benefits of restoring individual lakes does not meet the current needs of benefit–cost analysis.

We address this gap using a spatially explicit stated choice experiment, quantifying the benefits of individually improving different lakes in Denmark, varying considerably in size, current condition, and location. We estimate the independent value of improvements to the overall, categorical, ecological status used by the WFD, as well as improvements to continuous water quality elements.

The study tackles the variability between lakes at a hitherto unprecedented scale, by explicitly accounting for the heterogeneity of the 1052 lakes presented in the survey. Furthermore, the study provides the first insights into public preferences for different in-lake restoration measures.

As expected, we find that restoration benefits significantly depend on the characteristics, condition and location of the lakes, as well as the scope of the improvement. We find that people generally dislike in-lake restoration measures compared to external nutrient reduction measures, but that physical and biological restoration are preferred over chemical treatment. We use the estimated parameters to predict the national average willingness to pay for selected improvements for 1052 lakes in Denmark.

How to participate

The seminar is open to all.
The seminar will take place online via Zoom