Are Agricultural Measures for Groundwater Protection Beneficial When Compared to Purification of Polluted Groundwater?

The groundwater resource, the drinking water areas and the surface water quality can be protected by measures, e.g. by reductions of pesticide and nutrient applications, conversion of arable land to grasslands or forests etc. The objective of the paper is to estimate the benefits of groundwater protection by the valuation method choice experiments. This method allows for separate estimation and comparison of the different attributes connected to groundwater protection i.e. the effects on drinking water and surface water quality as compared to the benefits from cleaning and treatment of polluted drinking water to make it suitable for drinking water consumption. The results indicate that the benefits are significant, and that the willingness to pay for protection of the groundwater exceeds that from purification