Linking ecosystem service valuation to environmental policy support: a case study of pollution in the Tennessee River

Social valuation engages local communities and stakeholders to elicit their preferences for ecosystem services, with the expectation that this knowledge can inform environmental policy and decision making. However, it remains unclear whether and how such preferences can be applied to understanding environmental policy problems and predicting support for different types of policy intervention. To address this gap, we examine whether ecosystem service preferences explain variation in support for environmental policy when examined alongside established predictors from the policy sciences, including human values, risk perceptions, and sociodemographic characteristics. We conducted a survey of 422 residents in East Tennessee, USA, where the Tennessee River faces severe plastic and microplastic pollution. Respondents completed measures of ecosystem service preferences, value orientations, and pollution risk perceptions, and then evaluated their support for four policy typologies (distributive, regulatory, redistributive, and constituent) derived from Lowi’s framework. Across all four policy typologies, preferences for regulating ecosystem services were statistically significant predictors of policy support. Mediation results indicated that self-transcendence values were linked to policy support primarily through their association with regulating service preferences rather than through a direct effect. These findings suggest that prioritizing regulating services functions, at least in part, as an applied ecological expression of self-transcendent orientations, translating broad motivational goals into specific ecological priorities. Together, these findings outline a pathway for integrating social valuation into environmental governance and communication strategies, with practical implications for managing plastic pollution in the Tennessee River and other threatened river systems.