ABSTRACT
Forest management policies can affect the quantity, quality, and/or timing of water flowing from forest watersheds, effects which may be registered at sites distant from the point where the policy operates. As examples, forest policies can change water yield, affect rate of siltation of stream beds, or dampen the flood peak on a given river. Altered water flows or qualities may affect numerous economic activities, including off-stream uses (such as crop irrigation, households and industries), and in-stream purposes (including recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, power generation and waste dilution). These impacts have an economic dimension, which may be positive (moderate supply increases; enhanced quality) or negative (flooding, reduced water supplies, or degraded quality). This chapter deals with the concepts and procedures appropriate to assigning economic values to these impacts of wildland management policies.
