Abstract
The value of water quality both in municipal water use and recreational use is measured. The benefits of water quality improvement in municipal water use are measured empirically both from the supply side and from the demand side. On the supply side the benefits of water quality improvement are measured by means of a socalled cost-saving approach. On the demand side the costs of the averting behavior of consumers are considered to be one indicator of the benefits of water quality improvement. Whereas from the results of empirical application water quality improvement in Lake Biwa will bring cost saving of 4.1 billion yen year-1, the benefits on the demand side are estimated to be at least 20.3 billion yen year-1. As for recreational use it is suggested that the value of water quality would be estimated from the referendum voting style approach involves asking whether or not the consumer would be willing to pay some specified amount of money for a particular pair of water quality and some attributes in recreational sites. From a preliminary questionnaire, the difference between use value and nonuse value would exist among Japanese consumers.
