TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial asynchrony in environmental and economic benefits of stream restoration
AU - Zhang, Ruoyu
AU - Newburn, David
AU - Rosenberg, Andrew
AU - Lin, Laurence
AU - Groffman, Peter
AU - Duncan, Jonathan
AU - Band, Lawrence
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Coastal Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability Program Grant No. 1426819, and the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, Grant No. DEB-1027188 for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. government determination or policy. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. We also appreciate comments from three anonymous referees to improve our paper
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Stream restoration is widely used to mitigate the degradation of urban stream channels, protect infrastructure, and reduce sediment and nutrient loadings to receiving waterbodies. Stabilizing and revegetating riparian areas can also provide recreational opportunities and amenities, and improve quality of life for nearby residents. In this project, we developed indices of an environmental benefit (potential nitrate load reduction, a priority in the Chesapeake Bay watershed) and economic benefit (household willingness to pay, WTP) of stream restoration for all low order stream reaches in three main watersheds in the Baltimore metro region. We found spatial asynchrony of these benefits such that their spatial patterns were negatively correlated. Stream restoration in denser urban, less wealthy neighborhoods have high WTP, but low potential nitrate load reduction, while suburban and exurban, wealthy neighborhoods have the reverse trend. The spatial asynchrony raises challenges for decision makers to balance economic efficiency, social equity, and specific environmental goals of stream restoration programs.
AB - Stream restoration is widely used to mitigate the degradation of urban stream channels, protect infrastructure, and reduce sediment and nutrient loadings to receiving waterbodies. Stabilizing and revegetating riparian areas can also provide recreational opportunities and amenities, and improve quality of life for nearby residents. In this project, we developed indices of an environmental benefit (potential nitrate load reduction, a priority in the Chesapeake Bay watershed) and economic benefit (household willingness to pay, WTP) of stream restoration for all low order stream reaches in three main watersheds in the Baltimore metro region. We found spatial asynchrony of these benefits such that their spatial patterns were negatively correlated. Stream restoration in denser urban, less wealthy neighborhoods have high WTP, but low potential nitrate load reduction, while suburban and exurban, wealthy neighborhoods have the reverse trend. The spatial asynchrony raises challenges for decision makers to balance economic efficiency, social equity, and specific environmental goals of stream restoration programs.
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U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac61c6
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ac61c6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129917365
SN - 1748-9326
VL - 17
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
IS - 5
M1 - 054004
ER -
