Waters of the United States: Upgrading wetland valuation via benefit transfer

Abstract

With this study, we respond to the ongoing debate on the legal protection of wetlands, and the concurrent need to understand the societal benefits created by them. Using updated meta-data on wetland valuation, we illustrate how a state-of-the-art meta-regression framework that is consistent with economic theory can be adapted to generate benefit transfer predictions for incremental changes in wetland acreage over space and time. We apply this framework to estimate losses in benefits for realistic changes in wetland acreage for some sub-watersheds, as can be expected under the proposed re-definition of the “Waters of the United States” to be protected under the Clean Water Act.