ABSTRACT
This chapter examines relevant costs as the resource costs of a recreational project together with external costs comprising site congestion, ecological damage and social inconvenience. The cost–benefit method can be applied to a range of issues in the area of recreational decision making. In both urban and regional planning contexts, information on economic and social as well as purely financial benefits and costs is important in decisions regarding the provision of recreational facilities: the need for them, their size and number. The chapter looks at the measurement of user benefits for a facility viewed in isolation from the system in which it exists. As in other areas of cost–benefit application, the contingent valuation method has received relatively little attention in the recreation field, although its advantages are increasingly being recognized. The most widely used method for estimating user benefits – the Clawson–Knetsch travel cost method – involves numerous assumptions and requires considerable research effort.
