Estimating land use change and economic value of water quality in a north Georgia ecosystem

This study seeks to forecast land use change in an ecosystem in the Upper Chattahoochee River Basin, model associated water quality changes and estimate the economic value of the same using Benefit Transfer. The basin is of significant source of water, recreational and other ecological amenities, but encroachment by urban development is a major threat to the ecosystem. Econometric, vector autoregressive and structural time series models are applied to land use data and the best forecasting model is selected. Land use change and resulting water quality changes are modeled under different scenarios and the publics willingness to pay for improving and maintaining the quality of fishing and drinking water supply is estimated.