Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services Provided by the Restoration of an Irrigation Canal to a Riparian Corridor

A methodology has been developed and is presented for the economic valuation of Ecosystem Services (ES) provided in the case of restoration of an existing irrigation canal to a riparian corridor-linear park. The application is in an existing canal in Chrissoupolis, North Greece. Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a survey was conducted through questionnaires and personal interviews in 98 residents in July 2014. The survey results were extracted by two different ways: with the use of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and simple statistical analysis. AHP was used in extracting the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the restoration. Results of simple statistical analysis indicate that residents are willing to pay for the restoration an average of 11.44 € per year per resident or 75,216 € in total. The respective results from the implementation of the AHP method indicated a WTP of 49.45 € per year per resident or 325,000 € in total. This study highlights the need to consider ES and their value in future ecosystem restoration.