Abstract River infrastructure can cause adverse impacts on fish populations, which, in turn, compromises the ability of river ecosystems to provide a range of ecosystem services. In this paper, we present a methodological approach to assess the potential economics costs and benefits of river connectivity enhancement achieved through removal and mitigation of fish dispersal barriers. Our approach combines the results of a stated preference study for nonuse values of rivers and statistical models of fish population responses to barrier mitigation actions within an integrated bioeconomic optimization framework. We demonstrate the utility of our methodology using a case study of the River Wey catchment in southeast England, which contains over 650 artificial barriers. Our results reveal the presence of benefit-cost trade-offs which can form the basis for river barrier mitigation policy development. In particular, we find that benefits exceed costs in the River Wey for all levels of investment in barrier mitigation considered (£2.5 to 53.4 M). Furthermore, from an economic efficiency standpoint, a total budget of approximately £22.5M allocated to barrier mitigation would maximize net societal benefits derived from anticipated increases fish species richness and abundance.

中文翻译：

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如何选择？优化河流障碍缓解行动的生物经济模型

摘要 河流基础设施会对鱼类种群造成不利影响，进而损害河流生态系统提供一系列生态系统服务的能力。在本文中，我们提出了一种方法论方法来评估通过消除和减轻鱼类传播障碍实现的河流连通性增强的潜在经济成本和收益。我们的方法结合了对河流非使用价值的陈述偏好研究的结果和鱼类种群对综合生物经济优化框架内屏障缓解行动的反应的统计模型。我们使用英格兰东南部威河流域的案例研究来证明我们的方法的实用性，该流域包含 650 多个人工障碍。我们的结果揭示了利益成本权衡的存在，这可以构成河流障碍缓解政策制定的基础。尤其是，我们发现威河的所有级别的障碍缓解投资的收益超过了成本（2.5 到 5340 万英镑）。此外，从经济效率的角度来看，拨给障碍缓解的总预算约为 2250 万英镑，将使预期增加的鱼类物种丰富度和丰度带来的净社会效益最大化。