Three criticisms of the contingent valuation method (CVM) are considered in this article. One technique that would appear to answer such criticisms is choice modelling (CM). CM permits value estimates for different goods sharing a common set of attributes to be pieced together using the results...

One way of assessing the validity of results generated through the application of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is through the analysis of response sensitivity to factors expected to have an influence. Scope testing involves presenting at least two alternative impact scenarios to...

In the Desert Uplands region of Central Queensland, many pastoralists are clearing vegetation in order to improve cattle grazing production. A choice modelling study was undertaken to provide estimates of the benefits of retaining remnant vegetation that are appropriate for inclusion in a cost...

Questions relating to the allocation and management of risk have played a central role in the development of the National Water Initiative, particularly as it has applied to the Murray- Darling Basin. The central issues of efficiency and equity in allocations are best understood by considering...

In this paper we consider the problem of accommodating indigenous cultural heritage values in resource assessment and valuation. We suggest a need for price-based approaches to valuation to be replaced by or complemented with quantitative constraints, reflecting the requirement that rights...

The Murray-Darling Basin comprises over 1 million km2; it lies within four states and one territory; and over 12, 800 GL of irrigation water is used to produce over 40% of the nation's gross value of agricultural production. This production is used by a diverse collection of some-times mutually...

Much concern about the negative environmental consequences of agricultural development in Australia, including salinisation, waterlogging and algal blooms, has focused on the problems of the Murray–Darling Basin. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the environmental problems...

Management of the Murray–Darling river system involves a large number of users with imprecisely defined rights, and an aggregate rate of resource use that is environmentally unsustainable. One possible policy response is to make formal or informal contracts with users, under which users...

The supply of water for irrigation is subject to climatic and policy uncertainty. The object of the present paper is to show how the linear and non-linear programming models commonly used in modelling problems such as those arising in the Murray–Darling Basin may be adapted to incorporate a...