How much is a wetland worth? Contingent valuation of environmental rehabilitation at Lake Monger

Lotte Iolanthe Lent

    Research output: ThesisMaster's Thesis

    360 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    [Truncated] To the casual visitor, Lake Monger appears as an inviting blue gem, bounded by a verdant garden of shady trees, alive with the trumpeting of Black Swans and, in summer evenings, the strum of banjo frogs. But regular visitors would add to this image swarms of midges at dusk, birds paralysed with botulism and the stench of decomposing algae and dead fish.

    Lake Monger is a polluted wetland on the Swan Coastal Plain. The Lake
    suffers from exotic weeds and fish, unmonitored domestic fertilizer runoff,
    leachate from old rubbish tips once used to fill in lake edges, and a glut of avian
    faeces - all results of historic and ongoing environmental degradation.

    How much is Lake Monger worth to the residents of Perth? What values do
    residents place on the wetland? W h o is willing to pay for environmental
    rehabilitation of the lake?

    One hundred and one people were surveyed to learn their willingness to pay for
    upgrading Lake Monger's environment and to discover their attitudes and
    interests regarding the wetland. The survey design was based on the
    contingent valuation method (CVM), a technique which combines economic
    theory and survey research in order to help price amenities such as air or water
    which are not normally bought or sold.
    Original languageEnglish
    QualificationMasters
    Awarding Institution
    • The University of Western Australia
    DOIs
    Publication statusUnpublished - 1993

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    • This thesis has been made available in the UWA Profiles and Research Repository as part of a UWA Library project to digitise and make available theses completed before 2003. If you are the author of this thesis and would like it removed from the UWA Profiles and Research Repository, please contact [email protected]

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