Identifying Priority Areas for Wetlands Restoration along the Louisiana Coast under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act of 1990

This research uses a sequence of hedonic spatial regressions across successively larger ranges of contiguous census-block groups (CBGs) to identify priority areas for wetlands restoration along the Louisiana coast under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA). Marginal implicit prices of wetlands and open water from the regressions were translated into amenity values received by single-family house owners within five Queen orders of CBGs. Differences between amenity values of wetlands and open water were used to proxy the amenity values of four potential restoration sites. These differences were summed over housing locations within each order of contiguous GBG neighbors and across the orders for each site. Based on the aggregate amenity value per acre from wetlands restoration and under the assumption that most restoration projects are designed to benefit as wide an area as possible, the priority ranking for restoration becomes: (1) Fresh Bayou, (2) Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, (3) Bayou LaBranchee, and (4) Barataria Bay Waterway.