Estimating the economic value of landscape losses due to flooding by hydropower plants in the Chilean Patagonia

Peer Reviewed
13 April 2011

Water Resources Management

Roberto D. Ponce, Felipe Vásquez, Alejandra Stehr, Patrick Debels, Carlos Orihuela

This paper presents a contingent valuation study concerning landscape impact generated by the construction of one dam (Baker 1) of the HIDROAYSEN hydropower project located in the Chilean Patagonia. A survey was used to collect information about citizens' opinion towards the hydropower project in four major cities in Chile. Specifically, a One-and-One-Half-bound (OOHB) willingness to pay eliciting format was applied to capture citizens’ WTP. The economic loss, associated to landscape impact for people living in urban areas of the country, is found to be approximately US$ 205 million, which is nearly 28% of the total investment and it is found that distance has an effect on willingness to pay.

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Ponce, R. D., Vásquez, F., Stehr, A., Debels, P., & Orihuela, C. (2011). Estimating the Economic Value of Landscape Losses Due to Flooding by Hydropower Plants in the Chilean Patagonia. Water Resources Management, 25(10), 2449–2466. doi:10.1007/s11269-011-9820-3
Publication | 28 December 2011