Ecosystem Shifts: Implications for Groundwater Management

Encarna Esteban (), Elena Calvo and Jose Albiac
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Encarna Esteban: University of Zaragoza
Elena Calvo: IA2 (Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza-CITA)
Jose Albiac: IA2 (Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza-CITA)

Environmental & Resource Economics, 2021, vol. 79, issue 3, No 2, 483-510

Abstract: Abstract Freshwater ecosystems provide a large number of benefits to society. However, extensive human activities threat the viability of these ecosystems, their habitats, and their dynamics and interactions. One of the main risks facing these systems is the overexploitation of groundwater resources that hinders the survival of several freshwater habitats. In this paper, we study optimal groundwater paths when considering freshwater ecosystems. We contribute to existing groundwater literature by including the possibility of regime shifts in freshwater ecosystems into a groundwater management problem. The health of the freshwater habitat, which depends on the groundwater level, presents a switch in its status that occurs when a critical water level (‘tipping point’) is reached. Our results highlight important differences in optimal extraction paths and optimal groundwater levels compared with traditional models. The outcomes suggest that optimal groundwater withdrawals are non-linear and depend on the critical threshold and the ecosystem’s health function. Our results show that the inclusion of regime shifts in water management calls for a reformulation of water policies to incorporate the structure of ecosystems and their interactions with the habitat.

Keywords: Aquatic ecosystems; Groundwater management; Non-linear functions; Ecosystems health; Shifts in ecosystems; Tipping point; Two-stage optimal control problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q25 Q57 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10640-021-00569-7

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