AN ECOREGIONAL APPROACH TO THE ECONOMIC VALUATION OF LAND-BASED AND WATER-BASED RECREATION IN THE UNITED-STATES

This paper describes a framework for estimating the economic value of outdoor recreation across different ecoregions. Ten ecoregions in the continental United States were defined based on similarly functioning ecosystem characters. The individual travel cost method was employed t o estimate recreation demand functions for activities such as motor bo ating and waterskiing, developed and primitive camping, coldwater fish ing, sightseeing and pleasure driving, and big game hunting for each e coregion. While our ecoregional approach differs conceptually from pre vious work, our results appear consistent with the previous travel cos t method valuation studies.