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Urban water pricing is becoming increasingly important due to the rapid rate of urbanization and the expansion of water reclamation and reuse. The mounting evidence of failures of current pricing schemes makes analyzing their performance essential for understanding the adequacy of economic and sustainability policies in water management. However, urban water pricing policies are complex, serve multiple objectives, and vary widely across regions and countries. This paper presents an assessment framework for urban water pricing policies based on common conditions advocated for well-functioning pricing policies. Using a simplified scorecard, it compares the performance of urban water pricing policies in Jordan and Iran, two countries under growing scarcity pressure. Both countries show serious deficiencies with regard to the economic valuation of water services and the cost recovery of utilities. Public policies are rather oriented towards access and affordability, with Jordan showing a higher level of transparency and competition in tariff-setting. The assessment tool indicates a high potential for experience-sharing in future reforms, which should promote water as a scarce good. Such reforms need to prioritize full cost valuation, participation, and scientifically based designs of local and regional water tariffs.prices in one subsector such as irrigation [9][10][11]. Nauges and van den Berg [12] compared 11 case studies and determined that cost performance, and hence the ideal pricing model, depends on economic development in general, and even on corruption perception or investment protection. Recent comparative studies confirm the notion about the heterogeneity of pricing policies and their performance. A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) [13] emphasized the importance of tariffs that are tailored to local conditions. Accordingly, the practice of metering is unevenly adopted across OECD countries. Besides, environmental water charges such as abstraction charges, pollution/effluent charges, or water-use permits are emerging as a new kind of water tariff.Due to the varying objectives and great heterogeneity in tariff structures on the local scale, the literature on water pricing has so far offered little means of assessing the overall performance of water pricing across countries. Dinar et al. [14] presented many country-level case studies with various types of water tariffs and policy innovations. They did not regard these case studies as 'best practices', nor did they provide any assessment method across the case studies. Instead, they pointed out some underlying trends such as the shift in water-pricing objectives from cost recovery and efficiency towards social and environmental considerations. Accordingly, water pricing is becoming a key issue across the globe due to increasing investment to achieve water security. Similarly, Zetland and Gasson [15], in their analysis of 308 cities in 102 countries, did not indicate in which locations water pricing policies are better-performing. Rath...

Water scarcity drives governments in arid and semi-arid regions to promote strategies for improving water use efficiency. Water-related research generally also plays an important role in the same countries and for the same reason. However, it remains unclear how to link the implementation of new government strategies and water-related research. This article’s principal objective is to present a novel approach that defines water-related research gaps from the point of view of a government strategy. The proposed methodology is based on an extensive literature review, followed by a systematic evaluation of the topics covered both in grey and peer-reviewed literature. Finally, we assess if and how the different literature sources contribute to the goals of the water strategy. The methodology was tested by investigating the impact of the water strategy of Jordan’s government (2008–2022) on the research conducted in the Azraq Basin, considering 99 grey and peer-reviewed documents. The results showed an increase in the number of water-related research documents from 37 published between 1985 and 2007 to 62 published between 2008 and 2018. This increase should not, however, be seen as a positive impact of increased research activity from the development of Jordan’s water strategy. In fact, the increase in water-related research activity matches the increasing trend in research production in Jordan generally. Moreover, the results showed that only about 80% of the documents align with the goals identified in the water strategy. In addition, the distribution of the documents among the different goals of the strategy is heterogeneous; hence, research gaps can be identified, i.e., goals of the water-strategy that are not addressed by any of the documents sourced. To foster innovative and demand-based research in the future, a matrix was developed that linked basin-specific research focus areas (RFAs) with the MWI strategy topics. In doing so, the goals that are not covered by a particular RFA are highlighted. This analysis can inspire researchers to develop and apply new topics in the Azraq Basin to address the research gaps and strengthen the connection between the RFAs and the strategy topics and goals. Moreover, the application of the proposed methodology can motivate future research to become demand-driven, innovative, and contribute to solving societal challenges.

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