Tradeoffs between Water Uses and Environmental Flows: A Hydroeconomic Analysis in the Ebro Basin

Daniel Crespo (), Jose Albiac (), Taher Kahil (), Encarna Esteban () and Safa Baccour ()
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Daniel Crespo: CITA and Universidad de Zaragoza-IA2
Jose Albiac: CITA and Universidad de Zaragoza-IA2
Taher Kahil: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis-IA2
Encarna Esteban: Universidad de Zaragoza-IA2
Safa Baccour: CITA and Universidad de Zaragoza-IA2

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2019, vol. 33, issue 7, No 5, 2317 pages

Abstract: Abstract Environmental water uses and their social values have been mostly overlooked in traditional water management over the last few decades, and recently, the maintenance of environmental flows has been considered a key issue in water policies. Addressing the more sustainable management of water resources involves introducing new water allocation policies. However, these policies are often associated with tradeoffs across sectors, stakeholders, and spatial locations. This study aims to evaluate the tradeoffs and political economy aspects of allocating water among economic water uses and environmental flows in water-scarce river basins. An empirical analysis has been conducted in the Ebro River basin (Spain) as a case study, where an intense debate on the environmental flow allocation of the Ebro mouth is taking place. The study uses a hydroeconomic model that includes the major water uses in the Ebro to analyze the effects of different water allocation policies under combinations of water availability and environmental flow scenarios. The results of this study highlight the importance of assessing the opportunity costs and political implications of reallocating water from economic activities to the environment under impending climate change impacts. Moreover, the results indicate that well-functioning water allocation policies should be not only economically efficient but also socially acceptable to reduce the likelihood of failure of water reallocation to the environment.

Keywords: Environmental flow; Drought; Water policy; Hydroeconomic modeling; Ebro Basin; Q25; Q54; D78; C61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-019-02254-3

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