ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PADDY FIELD DAM IN THE CASE OF POLDER AREA

Abstract

The Paddy Field Dam (PFD) is a flood mitigation measure using paddy fields with runoff control devices installed in drainage boxes of paddy field plots. Although the flood mitigation function by the PFD has been proven to be effective, the propagation of this measure is not an easy task due to lack of incentives to the upstream farmers. Authors have been proposing to find a governmental financial support system to create a farmers incentive to voluntarily introduce the measure. For the system to be established, the economic value of social function of the PDF needs to be estimated. This study attempts to make an economic evaluation that the Paddy Field Dam would bring about in the case of a polder area in Shirone district, Niigata city, where Paddy Field Dam project has been practiced since 2009. As a result of the evaluation using direct cost method, the value of the Paddy Field Dam project was calculated to be approximately 11,200yen/10 a/year.