A Survey of Available Data and Methods for Developing Environmental Asset Accounts

摘要

The report explores the feasibility of developing a set of national wealth accounts covering the imputed value of non-marketed environmental assets. These assets include such publicly-owned assets as parks, lakes, beaches, and wilderness areas, as well as a portion of certain privately-owned assets, such as golf courses, which may generate external public benefits. The accounts are intended to describe the physical characteristics of these assets to marketed, private use and their benefits as measured by the imputed value of the public's willingness-to-pay for the assets' services. The report also provides a directory of available Federal and non-Federal data sources. In addition, a large number of studies that imputed values to particular environmental assets are reviewed and evaluated. There is an extensive annotated bibliography.