Willingness to pay for the outcomes of improved stormwater management

Sydney Water owns approximately 450 kilometres of stormwater and waterway infrastructure spread across more than 70 catchments in Sydney, Australia. Improving waterway health and enhancing urban environments is an important part of Sydney Water’s strategy to enhance the liveability of Sydney. This strategy can have a range of costs and benefits to the community. The costs of stormwater management can generally be estimated using market data. The benefits are not marketed directly, so estimation requires the use of nonmarket valuation methods. This paper reports the results of a choice modelling study that examined the willingness to pay of households in the catchments of Georges, Cooks and Parramatta rivers for improved stormwater management. The study found positive household values for improvements in waterway health, additional native vegetation plantings, including wetlands, additional recreation facilities in local open spaces used for stormwater management, and removal of rubbish and litter from the waterways.