Economical Valuation of River Services (Contingent Valuation and Cost-Benefit Approach)

One of the most important aspects of environmental economics is economic valuation. Natural resources such as rivers and rangelands are the most important factors for human and environmental survive. Less and discounting on natural resource values has been caused that the actual value of it to be showed less. For this reason, the broad objectives of this study is to determine the Direct Use Value (DUV) for river. Researcher believes that for some developing country like India Contingent Valuation (CVM) can be utilized for estimation of direct use value. A secondary aim of the study is to compare cost and benefit of Pune municipal plan for cleaning Pavana river, Pune, India. Results indicate that total dirct value of Pavana river is 5.9 milion rupees (59 lakh) per year (11.29 crore for 20 years) and it is greater than total cost of plan 8.94 crore (1 crore = 100 lakh or 10 million Rs.). Thus, the application of economic value of rivers in production of environmental services and more investment for saving rivers is advised.