2024 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 37-45
Lake Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan provides various ecosystem services to residents of the basin and the surrounding area. We applied a zonal travel cost method to assess the recreational value of the lake in monetary terms. We conducted an online questionnaire survey across Japan, and asked participants if they were interested in the water quality and organisms of Lake Kasumigaura, and whether they had visited any of the six recreational spots on the shores of Lake Kasumigaura (mainly the Nishiura and Hitachi Tone Rivers) during 2017. Among those who had visited any of these attractions, we asked for the subject’s home prefecture (if visiting from outside Ibaraki Prefecture) or municipality (if visiting from within Ibaraki Prefecture). We calculated the visit rate and travel costs to each attraction at Lake Kasumigaura. The results were used to determine the demand curve for the lake, and the consumer surplus per visit was calculated to be 4,087 yen/person. Then, we calculated the recreational value of Lake Kasumigaura based on the product of the consumer surplus and the annual number of visitors to Lake Kasumigaura. Thus, the recreational value of the lake was estimated to be 24.6 billion yen/year.
