Environmental and Resource Costs Under Water Scarcity Conditions: An Estimation in the Context of the European Water Framework Directive

Abstract

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the good ecological status of surface water bodies, which implies the improvement of both their physicochemical condition, as well as their flow and continuity. The WFD prescribes the assessment of environmental and resource costs and benefits associated with implementing these improvements. The recent literature focuses almost exclusively on the assessment of the economic values related to quality aspects. However, in much of southern Europe, fulfilling the WFD goals will greatly depend on maintaining sufficient water flow, as well. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the non-market value of allocating enough water to the environment to ensure environmental services are sustained when water is scarce. The non-market value of guaranteeing water supply for secondary household uses is also estimated. Using the Guadalquivir River Basin in Spain as a case study, a choice experiment is applied with scenarios characterized by varying water flow levels and accompanying environmental impacts, and a different frequency of household water restrictions. The results show that the population derives significant benefits not only from the direct use of water, but that also holds non-use values related to the ecological status, although the latter has a considerably lower impact on consumer surplus. Additionally, we conclude that the costs of implementing the water saving measures currently included in the Program of Measures seem to be proportionate to its benefits in this case. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

The Environmental Costs of Water Flow Regulation: an Innovative Approach Based on the ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle

“…This is not possible with stated preference approaches because respondents are asked about discrete changes in the environmental status of a good or service. For example, in the Guadalquivir River Basin, Martín-Ortega et al (2011) conducted a choice experiment using different scenarios characterized by several water flow levels, different environmental impacts, and different frequencies of water restrictions, to evaluate environmental and resource costs. In their study, environmental impact caused by water abstraction for irrigation was qualitatively assessed by four categories of levels of ecological status related to water flow.…”

“…Irrigation is one of the main purposes of river damming in Spain, using more than 80% of the stored water in the Southern basins (e.g., Martín-Ortega et al 2011). …”

“…To evaluate both the use and non-use values of the goods and services of ecosystems, economists have commonly relied on stated preference techniques, in which willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental improvements or willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for environmental damage is estimated (Bateman et al 2004;Martín-Ortega et al 2011). These methods are based on people's expressed preferences for changes in provision of non-marketed goods and services (Bateman et al 2004;Hanley and Barbier 2009).…”

“…Godinho et al 2014) no practical tools have been developed to internalize the environmental costs of flow regulation in economic analysis in the context of the WFD (e.g. WATECO 2003;Martín-Ortega et al 2011).…”

Marginal Value Estimation for the Attributes of the Tameikes via Choice Experiment

“…They include Adamowicz et al (1994) on water-based recreation in Alberta; Morrison et al (1999) on the Macquarie Marshes wetland in Australia; Carlsson et al (2003) on the wetland area in Staffanstorp, Sweden; Othman et al (2004) on the mangrove wetlands in Malaysia; Hanley et al (2006) on the improvements to the UK's river ecology; Birol et al (2006) on the Cheimaditida wetland in Greece; Birol et al (2009) on flood risks, recreation, and biodiversity conservation of the Bobrek catchment in Poland; Birol and Das (2010) on the wastewater treatment system for the River Ganga in India; and more recently, Martin-Ortega et al (2011) on the water quality of the Guadalquivir river basin in Spain.…”