Valuation of the environmental impacts of the Kayraktepe Dam Hydroelectric Project, Turkey: An exercise in contingent valuation

This paper describes and evaluates the environmental impacts of the Kayraktepe Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant in Turkey. The contingent valuation method is used to estimate the project's local environmental costs. The average, local rural annual willingness to pay for the restoration of the environmental impacts of the project is found to be USD 300 person(-1). Loss of forestry and agricultural benefits from the reservoir area that will be inundated are estimated to be USD 12.66 mill. yr(-1). When the Kayraktepe Project's external costs are internalized, its benefit cost ratio falls from 1.35 to 0.84, indicating that the project is economically undesirable and the decision for its construction needs to be reconsidered.