Assessing Economic Value Of Water Quality Improvement Of Xiang River In Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster Based On Contingent Valuation Method

At present, with the development of economy, the contradiction between economics and environmental pollution of Xiang River basin is becoming more and more serious. The deterioration of water quality is greatly harmful to the economic development, living and health of residents in the river basin. The remediation and restoration of water environment in the river basin are urgently. Nowadays, how to measure the value of the improvement water quality in Xiang River basin, providing economy reference and support to the restoration work become more and more important.The economic value of water quality improvement of Xiang River in Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster is calcuated by contingent valuation method. Two CVM situational investigations have been made from March to June, in2010. A sample of660residents was chosen by using a series of hypothetical, single-bounded dichotomous choice questions which were designed to elicit the respondents’WTP with face-to-face interviews. The paper analyzed correlation between respondents’ WTP and factors with statictics sofeware SPSS16.0, and the dissertation carries out the following results from the reclaimed627questionnaires:1) The results shows that70.01%of the population would pay for the improvement of the water quality; the economic value could reach up to an average of RMB206.16per household, annually, equal to4.23billion in5years, in Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster.2) There are4main reasons for zero WTP, and the proportion of people who think it’s due to the government to pay occupied33.88%.3) Base on model equation Logit, it’s finds that there are many factors effect residents’WTP:man have more willingness to pay that woman; as the increasing of the tender value, less people will to pay; for the same tender value, the more household income, the more willingness to pay they have; who support the government’s invention in Xiang River water quality improvement are more likely to pay than those who don’t.4) About21.2121million Yuan economic benefit will increase every year with the improvement of the credibility of government. Finally, this research puts forward several suggestions based on the CVM, providing the scientific basis for public environmental decision-making, and realized the effective management for ecological environmental system. These suggestions are:①to redefine the meaning of China’s environmental damage and extension;②to clear and direct and indirect economic losses range;③to set up professional assessment accreditation bodies;④to formulate a unified standards for the assessment of identification;⑤to complete evaluation process of environmental pollution accident loss.In summary, this paper has madden two innovation work as follows:1) This paper evaluate the value of water quality improvement of Xiang River by contingent valuation method, and the average willingness to pay of residents in Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster is206.16Yuan/(a· households), reaching up4.235billion Yuan in5years.2) This paper find out that if the credibility of government has improved, the economic value of water quality improvement of Xiang River would increase21.21million Yuan every year.