Date of Award

12-1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Steven T. Lofgren, PhD

Abstract

The Air Force spends $1 billion each year to preserve, maintain, and restore environmental resources under its control (Budget of the United States Government, 1994). Assessing the benefit of this spending is a central issue in federal environmental management. As federal environmental management moves from a "clean it up at any cost" mentality to one which carefully considers the costs and benefits of spending, a fundamental question arises: What value of environmental resources does our environmental spending provide? As in any rational economic exchange benefits must exceed costs; the value of an environmental resource which benefits from public spending must exceed the amount spent. This thesis explores a method to measure the value of environmental resources more completely and applies the method to measure the value of cleaning up two dormant landfills affecting a military housing area.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GEE-ENV-96D-06

DTIC Accession Number

ADA320745

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