Are urban stream restoration projects worth it?

Background/Question/Methods Stream restoration projects are intentional manipulations of the stream environment to achieve a range of benefits including infrastructure protection, water quality improvements, and aesthetic and recreation improvements. To achieve these anticipated benefits, billions of dollars annually spent on stream restoration projects. A natural question that arises is do the benefits of stream restoration outweigh the project costs? Answering this question requires conducting a benefit analysis and comparing the value of these benefits to the costs of stream restoration. The monetary benefits of water quality improvements and infrastructure protection were assessed using the least cost, feasible urban best management alternative. To quantify the aesthetic and recreation benefits, we conducted a mail survey to learn how citizens feel about and value different features of urban stream restoration projects. The willingness-to-pay for aesthetics and recreation were specifically determined using a payment card design.

Results/Conclusions The benefits of water quality improvements were approximately $100 per linear foot and the benefits of infrastructure protection were about $75 per linear foot. The aesthetics and recreation value, given the willingness-to-pay calculations from the survey were conservatively calculated at around $700 per linear foot. Thus, the total benefits sum to $875. Given that the cost of stream restoration ranges from $250 per linear foot to $1000 per linear foot, the benefits may or may not outweigh the costs. Therefore, our preliminary results indicate that the aesthetic and recreation value drives whether or not an urban stream restoration project is worth it.