Using approaches of literature review

empirical analysis and comparison analysis

the opportunity cost of the upper reaches of Qiupuhe River in 2009 was estimated as of 6.02 X 108 yuan with the opportunity cost method

and the maximum willingness to pay(WTP) was 5.62 X 107 yuan with the contingent vale meth-od(CVM). According to the calculations

the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods were ana-lyzed in details. Based on the semi-efficient market theory and the ecological concept of time-space

the whole compensation process could be divided into two stages

initial compensation and final compensation. The difference between direct economic benefit and ecological preservation cost was set as the initial compensa-tion

which was estimated as of 2.35 X 108 yuan for the study area. The final compensation is total value of the opportunity cost.