Hydro-economic river basin modelling: The application of a holistic surface–groundwater model to assess opportunity costs of water use in Spain

Pulido-Velázquez, Manuel; Andreu, Joaquín; Sahuquillo, Andrés; Pulido-Velázquez, David

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.12.016

Cited by 107 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Water shadow prices, in Table 7, reflect the marginal opportunity cost of imposing environmental constraints on irrigation water use and thus, can be used as reference valúes for designing efficient pricing policies (González-Álvarez et al, 2006;Pulido-Velázquez et al, 2008;Ward and Michelsen, 2002). Our results indícate that water shadow prices rise over the whole basin and notably, in CDO, when environmental flows are implemented.…”

Section: Eu Policy-driven Scenario: Implementing Mínimum Environmentamentioning

confidence: 70%

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Ferrer

Varela‐Ortega

Purkey

2013

Journal of Environmental Management

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Keywords:Water management Sustainable irrigation Hydro-economic modeling Policy analysis Semi-arid regions Sustaining irrigated agriculture to meet food production needs while maintaining aquatic ecosystems is at the heart of many policy debates in various parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid áreas. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly calling for integrated approaches, and policy-makers are progressively supporting the inclusión of ecological and social aspects in water management programs. This paper contributes to this policy debate by providing an integrated economic-hydrologic modeling framework that captures the socio-economic and environmental effects of various policy initiatives and climate variability. This modeling integration includes a risk-based economic optimization model and a hydrologic water management simulation model that have been specified for the Middle Guadiana basin, a vulnerable drought-prone agro-ecological área with highly regulated river systems in southwest Spain. Namely, two key water policy interventions were investigated: the implementation of mínimum environmental ñows (supported by the European Water Framework Directive, EU WFD), and a reduction in the legal amount of water delivered for irrigation (planned measure included in the new Guadiana River Basin Management Plan, GRBMP, still under discussion). Results indícate that current patterns of excessive water use for irrigation in the basin may put environmental ñow demands at risk, jeopardizing the WFD's goal of restoring the 'good ecological status' of water bodies by 2015. Conñicts between environmental and agricultural water uses will be stressed during prolonged dry episodes, and particularly in summer low-ñow periods, when there is an important increase of crop irrigation water requirements. Securing mínimum stream ñows would entail a substantial reduction in irrigation water use for rice cultivation, which might affect the profitability and economic viability of small rice-growing farms located upstream in the river. The new GRBMP could contribute to balance competing water demands in the basin and to increase economic water productivity, but might not be sufficient to ensure the provisión of environmental ñows as required by the WFD. A thoroughly revisión of the basin's water use concession system for irrigation seems to be needed in order to bring the GRBMP in Une with the WFD objectives. Furthermore, the study illustrates that social, economic, institutional, and technological factors, in addition to bio-physical conditions, are important issues to be considered for designing and developing water management strategies. The research initiative presented in this paper demonstrates that hydro-economic models can explicitly intégrate all these issues, constituting a valuable tool that could assist policy makers for implementing sustainable irrigation policies.

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Section: Eu Policy-driven Scenario: Implementing Mínimum Environmentamentioning

confidence: 70%

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Ferrer

Varela‐Ortega

Purkey

2013

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Annual water leases from irrigators to governments or water utilities are also common, especially during times of drought to meet municipal industrial water supply deficits. Such transactions occur, for example, in the U.S. of California [Howitt, 1994] and Georgia [Cummings et al, 2004] and in parts of Spain [Pulido-Velazquez et al, 2008].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trading water to improve environmental flow outcomes

Connor

Franklin

Loch

et al. 2013

Water Resources Research

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[1] As consumptive extractions and water scarcity pressures brought about by climate change increase in many world river basins, so do the risks to water-dependent ecological assets. In response, public or not for profit environmental water holders (EWHs) have been established in many areas and bestowed with endowments of water and mandates to manage water for ecological outcomes. Water scarcity has also increasingly spawned water trade arrangements in many river basins, and in many instances, EWHs are now operating in water markets. A number of EWHs, especially in Australia, begin with an endowment of permanent water entitlements purchased from irrigators. Such water entitlements typically have relatively constant interannual supply profiles that often do not match ecological water demand involving flood pulses and periods of drying. This article develops a hydrologiceconomic simulation model of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray-Darling Basin to assess the scope of possibilities to improve environmental outcomes through EWH trading on an annual water lease market. We find that there are some modest opportunities for EWHs to improve environmental outcomes through water trade. The best opportunities occur in periods of drought and for ecological outcomes that benefit from moderately large floods. We also assess the extent to which EWH trading in annual water leases may create pecuniary externalities via bidding up or down the water lease prices faced by irrigators. Environmental water trading is found to have relatively small impacts on water market price outcomes. Overall our results suggest that the benefits of developing EWH trading may well justify the costs.

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“…Most hydroeconomic models share basic components including hydrologic inflows, water management infrastructure, economic water demands, operating costs, and operating rules (Pulido-Velazquez et al 2008;Harou et al 2009). In CU models, we also need to characterize groundwater storage and heads (needed to assess pumping cost variation) and, of course, stream-aquifer interactions where significant for the management model and at the required level of accuracy (see Sect.…”

Section: Model Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydroeconomic Models as Decision Support Tools for Conjunctive Management of Surface and Groundwater

Pulido-Velázquez

Marques

Harou

et al. 2016

Integrated Groundwater Management

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Conjunctive use (CU) of surface and groundwater storage and supplies is essential for integrated water management. It is also a key strategy for supporting groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and for adapting water systems to future climate and land use changes. CU has become increasingly sophisticated and integrated with other innovative and traditional water management techniques, such as water transfers, water reuse, demand management, and aquifer remediation. CU adds value for society (increasing average yield and reliability) but can also induce costs to some parties, such as damaging senior water rights of surface water users when pumping from the aquifer reduces streamflow. Groundwater overexploitation also can produce a host of undesirable economic and environmental impacts. Successful CU implementation typically requires changes in infrastructure and operations, but also changes in institutions and institutional arrangements to offset potential third party costs and protect ecosystems. This chapter analyses first the management and economic implications of CU,

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Hydro-economic river basin modelling: The application of a holistic surface–groundwater model to assess opportunity costs of water use in Spain

Cited by 107 publications

References 48 publications

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Trading water to improve environmental flow outcomes

Hydroeconomic Models as Decision Support Tools for Conjunctive Management of Surface and Groundwater

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