Measuring the economic value of urban river restoration

Rivers are under enormous threat worldwide and large amounts of money invested in river restoration. Contrary to the costs, benefits restoration much harder quantify. In this study, restoring different sections Yongding River Beijing, China, estimated through a discrete choice experiment (DCE). Place attachment is measured by sampling residents upstream downstream using as labelled alternatives DCE. As expected, improvement water quality valued highly all basin residents, place spatial preference heterogeneity play significant role public willingness pay (WTP) for Although respondents willing give up only small share their disposable income, WTP improved factor 2 4 higher than current household bill. These findings provide important guidance recovery investment costs associated with projects.