Value of valuation: Introduction

The principal focus of this special issue of the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management is on monetary valuation of environmental outcomes. The interest in valuation is embedded in the practice of benefit-cost analysis that has been an important practice in the water resource field since the 1930s, and is reinforced by contemporary growth in natural resource damage cases. This paper summarizes the state of the art in valuation, in physically-based alternatives to valuation, and in controversies surrounding this application of economics to water resource decision making. It also introduces the papers in this special issue.