Quantifying the economic value of a national hydrometric network for households

This study reports the results of a Choice Experiment to quantify households’ willingness-to-pay for river gauging programmes in Scotland. The hydrometric network is operated and maintained by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scotland’s principal environment regulator, a non-department public body of the Scottish Government. Results from mixed logit and latent class modelling show that most households (‘Hydrometric Maximisers’ − around 70 %) have significant, positive willingness-to-pay values for river gauging programmes, but a minority (‘Hydrometric Satisficers’ − around 30 %) do not view this as a major public policy priority. On average, hydrometric data collection delivers non-market benefits worth £84,625,562 to the Scottish economy, with a minimum economic Benefit-to-Cost ratio of 25:1. This is in addition to the infrastructure value and any private returns made by commercial users of the data. The findings demonstrate that traditional approaches to assessing the benefits of hydrometric networks often underestimate their value. The research also highlights the importance of public information campaigns and household engagement initiatives to increase awareness of hydro-meteorological services, and to develop the business case more fully for public investment in environmental observation networks.