Concepts of Value for Water-Based Recreation Opportunities

Concepts of value are presented for estimating recreation values for benefit-cost analysis. The appropriate concept for valuation of increases in public recreation opportunities is the maximum willingness of users to pay while the appropriate concept of value for the lost opportunities is the willingness of users to sell their rights to those opportunities. Substantial progress has been made toward estimating the willingness of users to pay; but satisfactory procedures for estimating willingness to sell are not yet available. Increased effort should be devoted to developing procedures for estimating willingness to sell.