Research Report 127: What’s our water worth? Estimating the Value to Irish Society of Benefits Derived from Water-Related Ecosystem Services

Research Report 127: Estimating the Value to Irish Society of Benefits Derived from Water-Related Ecosystem Services: A Discrete Choice Approach

Summary: Research Report 127 Dr Stephen Hynes NUIG

This report uses the CE approach to estimate the generic values that the Irish public associate with Irish waterbodies. Also, individuals may not view different waterbody types (coastal, lakes, rivers) as holistic management units but as waterbodies with similar ecosystem services being provided. For this reason, this report also investigates whether Irish citizens have different benefit values associated with alternative waterbody types. Special attention is given in this report to whether respondents’ preferences for alternative means of paying for water management impacted on the values they assigned to Irish
waterbodies.