Economical Valuation of River to Conservation for sustainability of Water Supply (Case Study: Masal Khalkaei River, Gilan Province)

Economical valuation of environmental services help the decision makers to make decision about receasion, conservation and sustainability of water resources. Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is used to evaluate conservation of water resources value of Khalkaei River located in Masal in Guilan Province at the north of Iran. This method tries to define individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) under suggested prices of given hypothetical market. Among the variables of the model presented, monthly cost, monthly income and environmental viwepoint (P<0.01) and landscape (P<0.1) are effective variables on willing to pay.. The average monthly WTP per family was calculated as 36766 Rls of Iran. The annual conservation value in terms of WTP for the conservation of Khalkaei River was estimated as 208 million Rls of Iran.