Nonmotorized boating (NMB) is a popular recreation activity in the US National Forest System. Previous studies on NMB were from an individual river or site, which limited aggregating benefit across the system or generalizing to rivers across the country. Further, whether and how site and river characteristics affect the use of rivers for NMB activities are unknown. This study combined trip data collected from visitor surveys across the system with spatially explicit data on river characteristics in a travel cost model, and in the analysis step, characterized the economic benefit of NMB access and evaluated the effect of site and river characteristics. Net economic benefit of NMB access was estimated to be in the range of $56 to $73 per trip, depending on the modeling assumptions used. When aggregated across visits over the country, the total annual economic value of NMB access in National Forest System ranged from $92 million to $120 million. Results further suggest that site and river characteristics including water velocity, ramp availability, and rapid level were significantly related to NMB demand. Results may be useful in highlighting the use and public value of NMB access in rivers and in understanding the importance of site and river characteristics.

中文翻译：

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美国国家森林河流中非机动划船通道的需求和经济价值

非机动划船 (NMB) 是美国国家森林系统中一项受欢迎的休闲活动。以前对 NMB 的研究来自单个河流或地点，这限制了整个系统的聚合效益或推广到全国的河流。此外，场地和河流特征是否以及如何影响河流用于 NMB 活动尚不清楚。本研究将全系统游客调查收集的旅行数据与旅行成本模型中河流特征的空间明确数据相结合，在分析步骤中，表征了 NMB 访问的经济效益，并评估了场地和河流特征的影响。NMB 访问的净经济效益估计在每次旅行 56 到 73 美元之间，具体取决于所使用的建模假设。在全国各地的访问中汇总时，国家森林系统中 NMB 的年总经济价值从 9200 万美元到 1.2 亿美元不等。结果进一步表明，包括水速、坡道可用性和快速水位在内的场地和河流特征与 NMB 需求显着相关。结果可能有助于突出河流中 NMB 接入的使用和公共价值，以及了解场地和河流特征的重要性。