Economical valuation of Urmia Lake for non-consumable values

Renewable natural resources have had a fundamental role in economic and social development of societies during history. Increasing environmental disasters has also concerned economists as well as environmental specialists, and has made the experts at management level to realise the need for protection and sustainable use of natural resources. In this study, it was tried to determine the economical value of Urmia Lake,usingLogit method which is based on people’s willingness to pay, by CVM method and WTP measurements. The main purpose of this study was to provide non-consumable value (conservation value) of this lake. In this method, 31 variables were investigated. The estimation of the model was carried out using the Logit method with EVIEWS software (10). Analyzing the results indicated that the amount of willingness to pay for each unit price rise is decreased by 21%. Finally, the average value of WTP for non-consumable economic value of UrmiaLake was estimated to be 52.58x103 and the total economic value of the lake was estimated to be $605 million.