Enviornmental performance auditing for water pollution control projects

Key words: 
• environmental performance auditing /
• evaluation procedure /
• contingent valuation method /
• willingness to pay

Abstract: With increasing environmental investment in China, environmental performance auditing has become a hot topic among audit institutions, with main purpose to supervise the benefits of environmental investment. In this study, an evaluation procedure for estimating environmental benefits was developed. Contingent valuation method (CVM) was used in a case-water pollution control project in Wuli Lake. The willingness to pay for the water quality improvement and for the real estate around the lake was calculated based on a survey conducted in 2004. The results show that the considerable benefits have been achieved after the integrated control project was conducted. At last, some issues were discussed on possible applications of CVM method in governmental environmental auditing.