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Market-based approaches to conservation -- How stream restoration was born, and what came of it -- How markets, and mitigation, came to be accepted forms of environmental regulation -- The actors in stream mitigation banking -- How mitigation banks work, and the biography of a bank -- The mangle of practice -- Conclusion: Can markets for ecosystem services fix conservation?

"One of the most influential, and perhaps surprising,developments in environmental policy in recent decades is the idea that we can protect the environment from the negative impacts of economic development by making environmental protection itself more economic. The goal is to reduce environmental harm not by preventing it, but by pricing it. Using stream mitigation banking, that is the market for rivers and streams under Section 404 of the US Clean Water Act, as a case, Lave and Doyle explain where market-based environmental management approaches came from, how they work in practice, and what they do on ground"--

AbstractThe cost of providing water services is increasing, placing greater financial burdens on individual households and utilities. Five metrics were calculated at multiple volumes of water usage and were applied to 1791 utilities, estimating bills from 2020 rates data, to gauge financial burdens in four states. More than a fifth of the population in 77% of utilities was experiencing poverty, suggesting widespread poverty is a major contributor to utility financial capability challenges. The Income Dedicated to Water Service metric was developed to understand how many households share a similar financial burden, exploring both the depth and prevalence of affordability challenges. Depending on water use, a tenth to a third of households work more than a day each month to afford water bills. This approach and an interactive visualization tool bring greater transparency to understand the scale of affordability and financial capability challenges (https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/water-affordability/water-affordability-dashboard).