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Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling
The increasing concern about the degradation of water-dependent ecosystems calls for considering ecosystems benefits in water management decision-making. Sustainable water management requires adequate economic and biophysical information on water systems supporting both human activities and natural...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9070880/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35511815 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267439 |
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author | Crespo, Daniel Albiac, Jose Dinar, Ariel Esteban, Encarna Kahil, Taher |
author_facet | Crespo, Daniel Albiac, Jose Dinar, Ariel Esteban, Encarna Kahil, Taher |
author_sort | Crespo, Daniel |
collection | PubMed |
description | The increasing concern about the degradation of water-dependent ecosystems calls for considering ecosystems benefits in water management decision-making. Sustainable water management requires adequate economic and biophysical information on water systems supporting both human activities and natural ecosystems. This information is essential for assessing the impact on social welfare of water allocation options. This paper evaluates various alternative water management policies by including the spatial and sectoral interrelationships between the economic and environmental uses of water. A hydroeconomic model is developed to analyze water management policies for adaptation to reduced water availability in the Ebro Basin of Spain. The originality in our contribution is the integration of environmental benefits across the basin, by using endemic biophysical information that relates stream flows and ecosystem status in the Ebro Basin. The results show the enhancement of social welfare that can be achieved by protecting environmental flows, and the tradeoffs between economic and environmental benefits under alternative adaptation strategies. The introduction of water markets is a policy that maximizes the private benefits of economic activities, but disregards environmental benefits. The results show that the current institutional policy where stakeholders cooperate inside the water authority, provides lower private benefits but higher environmental benefits compared to those obtained under water markets, especially under severe droughts. However, the water authority is not allocating enough environmental flows to optimize social welfare. This study informs strategies for protection of environmental flows in the Ebro Basin, which is a compelling decision under the imminent climate change impacts on water availability in coming decades. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9070880 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90708802022-05-06 Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling Crespo, Daniel Albiac, Jose Dinar, Ariel Esteban, Encarna Kahil, Taher PLoS One Research Article The increasing concern about the degradation of water-dependent ecosystems calls for considering ecosystems benefits in water management decision-making. Sustainable water management requires adequate economic and biophysical information on water systems supporting both human activities and natural ecosystems. This information is essential for assessing the impact on social welfare of water allocation options. This paper evaluates various alternative water management policies by including the spatial and sectoral interrelationships between the economic and environmental uses of water. A hydroeconomic model is developed to analyze water management policies for adaptation to reduced water availability in the Ebro Basin of Spain. The originality in our contribution is the integration of environmental benefits across the basin, by using endemic biophysical information that relates stream flows and ecosystem status in the Ebro Basin. The results show the enhancement of social welfare that can be achieved by protecting environmental flows, and the tradeoffs between economic and environmental benefits under alternative adaptation strategies. The introduction of water markets is a policy that maximizes the private benefits of economic activities, but disregards environmental benefits. The results show that the current institutional policy where stakeholders cooperate inside the water authority, provides lower private benefits but higher environmental benefits compared to those obtained under water markets, especially under severe droughts. However, the water authority is not allocating enough environmental flows to optimize social welfare. This study informs strategies for protection of environmental flows in the Ebro Basin, which is a compelling decision under the imminent climate change impacts on water availability in coming decades. Public Library of Science 2022-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9070880/ /pubmed/35511815 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267439 Text en © 2022 Crespo et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Crespo, Daniel Albiac, Jose Dinar, Ariel Esteban, Encarna Kahil, Taher Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title | Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title_full | Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title_fullStr | Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title_full_unstemmed | Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title_short | Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
title_sort | integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9070880/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35511815 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267439 |
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