Acidification remediation alternatives: exploring the temporal dimension with cost benefit analysis

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Ecology
• Environmental Chemistry

Background:

• Acid deposition continues to acidify soils and surface waters in southern Scandinavia, impacting ecosystems.
• Current mitigation strategies include emission control and liming of lakes, streams, and wetlands.
• Forest soil liming is proposed as an alternative to address the source of acidified runoff.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the cost-benefit of lake liming versus forest soil liming for mitigating acid deposition.
• To evaluate the time perspective for expected benefits of different liming strategies.
• To assess the socioeconomic profitability of addressing acidification at the source versus treating symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Cost-benefit analysis comparing lake liming and forest soil liming strategies.
• Utilized benefits transfer to estimate use values (sport fishing) and nonuse values (existence values).
• Focused on the temporal aspects of economic returns for each liming approach.

Main Results:

• Large-scale forest soil liming was found to be socioeconomically unprofitable.
• Lake liming is profitable when applied efficiently to only acidified surface waters.
• Treating symptoms (surface waters) is more economically viable than addressing the source (soils).

Conclusions:

• Efficient lake liming is a socioeconomically beneficial strategy for managing acid deposition.
• Forest soil liming is not a cost-effective solution for widespread acid mitigation.
• Targeted treatment of acidified surface waters is more economically prudent than source-based soil liming.