The use of any other method should be justified as 

 conforming to the characteristics listed in 2.8.2(b) 

 and the selection process described in 2.8.2(d). 



(1) Travel cost method. The basic premise of the 

 travel cost method is that per capita use of a recre- 

 ation site will decrease as out-of-pocket and time 

 costs of traveling to the site increase, other varia- 

 bles being constant. TCM consists of deriving a 

 demand curve by using the variable costs of travel 

 and the value of time as proxies for price. This 

 method may be applied to a site-specific study or a 

 regional model. 



(2) Contingent valuation method. The contingent 

 valuation method estimates NED benefits by direct- 

 ly asking individual households their willingness to 

 pay for changes in recreation opportunities at a 

 given site. Individual values may be aggregated by 

 summing willingness to pay for all users in the 

 study area. This method may be applied to a site- 

 specific study or a regional model. 



(3) Unit day value. The unit day value method 

 relies on expert or informed opinion and judgment 

 to estimate the average willingness to pay of recre- 

 ation users. By applying a carefully thought-out and 

 adjusted unit day value to estimated use, an ap- 

 proximation is obtained that may be used as an es- 

 timate of project recreation benefits. 



(d) Selection of evaluation procedure. Select a 

 procedure for evaluating each of the following two 



categories of project-related use: (1) total or gross 

 expected use of project facilities, including transfers 

 of use from other sites; (2) and existing site use 

 displaced or destroyed by project facilities. The cri- 

 teria for selecting the appropriate procedure for 

 each use category are set out in Figure 2.8.2. Ap- 

 plication of the criteria may result in selection of dif- 

 ferent procedures for the two categories. The crite- 

 ria given in Figure 2.8.2 consider several dimen- 

 sions of project evaluation situations: Three meas- 

 ures of the absolute and relative size of the recrea- 

 tion benefit created, displaced, or transferred by the 

 proposed project, and the nature of the recreation 

 activities affected. If either use category specified 

 above involves more than 750,000 annual visits, 

 use either a regional model or site-specific study to 

 evaluate benefits or benefits foregone. If recreation 

 is an important project component relative to other 

 outputs and costs, or if specialized activities (those 

 for which opportunities in general are limited, inten- 

 sity of use is low, and users' skill, knowledge, and 

 appreciation is great) are affected, the criteria also 

 require greater accuracy in benefit estimates. If 

 both specialized activities and general recreation 

 are affected by the project, the choice between a 

 regional model and a more limited site-specific 

 study is at the discretion of the agency, based on 

 consideration of the relative importance of the spe- 

 cialized activity, the advantages of the respective 

 methods, and cost considerations. 



68 



