The Water Poverty Index: Development and application at the community scale

The article details the development and uses of the water poverty index (WPI). The index was developed as a holistic tool to measure water stress at the household and community levels, designed to aid national decision makers, at community and central government level, as well as donor agencies, to determine priority needs for interventions in the water sector. The index combines into a single number a cluster of data directly and indirectly relevant to water stress. Subcomponents of the index include measures of: access to water; water quantity, quality and variability; water uses (domestic, food, productive purposes); capacity for water management; and environmental aspects.
The WPI methodology was developed through pilot projects in South Africa, Tanzania and Sri Lanka and involved intensive participation and consultation with all stakeholders, including water users, politicians, water sector professionals, aid agency personnel and others. The article discusses approaches for the further implementation of the water poverty index, including the possibilities of acquiring the necessary data through existing national surveys or by establishing interdisciplinary water modules in school curricula. The article argues that the WPI fills the need for a simple, open and transparent tool, one that will appeal to politicians and decision makers, and at the same time can empower poor people to participate in the better targeting of water sector interventions and development budgets in general.     

The economic value of water use: implications for implementing the Water Framework Directive in Scotland

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) enshrines several economic principles in pursuit of 'good ecological status' for Europe's waters and rationalising water use in society. The implicit principle of maximising the social value from use of a scarce resource is reminiscent of the debate about treating water as an economic good, which has competing uses in society. This paper locates the debate about the economic value of water in the requirements of WFD. Specifically, we consider the implications of national reporting requirements for the economic characterisation report that stress the identification of relative value derived from use. As part of the Scottish contribution to the UK reporting exercise, we use a range of secondary data sources to derive economic values for water on a sector basis. We suggest whether the implications of different water values can be followed through in the WFD.     

Reducing the costs of meeting regional water demand through risk-based transfer agreements

Transfers of treated water among inter-connected utilities is becoming more common as the cost of developing new supplies grows, and transfer agreements require well developed rules describing when and how much water will be transferred. The nature of the decision rules governing an agreement must also be coordinated with respect to the treatment and conveyance capacity required to execute the transfers. This study explores different combinations of infrastructure and agreement type that define three different transfer programs, describing the frequency and volume of transfers associated with each, as well as their costs. The agreements are described in terms of the type of decision rule employed: Take-or-Pay, where the timing and quantity of transfers is fixed; Days of Supply Remaining (DSR), which uses a static hydrologic indicator to trigger transfers; and Risk-of-Failure, a probability-based decision rule that involves consideration of both supply and demand. This analysis is conducted within the context of the Research Triangle area of North Carolina (USA), a rapidly growing area that is beginning to approach the practical limits of water resource development. The Risk-of-Failure agreement is shown to reduce the average volume of transfers by over 80% compared to a Take-or-Pay agreement and by roughly half relative to the DSR agreement, leading to significant cost reductions. A utility's willingness to accept something less than guaranteed access to a specified quantity of water (i.e. an interruption) also has a significant impact on cost. Interruptions do not necessarily lead to lower reliability, but rather to the purchasing utility acquiring more water during off-peak periods when the seller has excess treatment capacity available. The lowest cost guaranteed agreement is 40–50% more expensive than the lowest cost interruptible contract.     

Water stress, water transfer and social equity in Northern China--implications for policy reforms

Water stress in Northern China is characterized with major, inefficient irrigation water use and rapidly growing non-agricultural water demands, as well as limited water quantity and declining water quality. Water use in the region is undergoing transfer from agricultural to municipal and industrial sectors. Currently, part of the economic loss and environmental damage due to water stress can be considered as a consequence of water transfer failures, including the current transfers, which hurt farmers' livelihood and income, and the needed transfers, which industry and cities have been waiting for but have not received. This paper starts with a discussion of the causes of water stress in Northern China, which is fundamental to understand the necessity and complexity of agricultural water transfers. Following that, it reviews water transfers in Northern China as a cause for concern over the social stability, economy and environment of the region. Based on an integrated analysis of economic, environmental, fiscal and social implications, this paper begins by identifying critical barriers to smooth water redistribution; and ends with implications for policy reforms, ensuring that farmers can and will save water. It is concluded that the decisions of water reallocation under water stress should be shared by communities at all levels, from the local to the national, to ensure equal access of water, especially the availability of the basic water need for all groups.     

Cities vs. agriculture: A review of intersectoral water re-allocation

Water demand management, or making better use of the water we have — as opposed to augmenting supply — is increasingly proposed as a way of mitigating water-scarcity problems. Moving water away from agriculture to uses with higher economic value is one of the main measures widely seen as desirable. Sectoral "allocation stress" is seen as resulting from the disproportionate share, and inefficient use of water in the agricultural sector. This apparent misallocation is often attributed to the failure of government to allocate water rationally.
This paper revisits this commonly-accepted wisdom and examines the nature of urban water scarcity, showing the importance of economic and political factors, shaped by incentives to decision-makers, and sometimes compounded by climatic conditions. It shows that cities' growth is not generally constrained by competition with agriculture. In general, rather than using a narrow financial criterion, cities select options that go along the "path of least resistance," whereby economic, social and political costs are considered in conjunction. The question of allocation stress is thus reframed into an inquiry of how transfers effectively occur and can be made more effective.     

Irrigation-Dependent Wetlands Versus Instream Flow Enhancement: Economics of Water Transfers from Agriculture to Wildlife Uses

Irrigated agriculture throughout western North America faces increasing pressure to transfer water to nonagricultural uses, including instream flows for fish and wildlife management. In an important case, increased instream flows are needed in Nebraskas Platte River for recovery of threatened and endangered fish and wildlife species. Irrigated agriculture in the Laramie Basin of southeast Wyoming is a potential water source for the effort to enhance instream flow. However, flood irrigation of hayfields in the Laramie Basin has created many wetlands, both ephemeral and permanent, over the last century. Attempting to increase Platte River instream flows by purchasing water rights or improving irrigation efficiency in the Laramie Basin would transform irrigated agriculture, causing a substantial fraction of the Laramie Basins wetlands to be lost. A creative solution is needed to prevent the sacrifice of one ecosystem on behalf of another. A rotating short-term water-leasing program is proposed. The program allows Laramie Basin producers to contribute to instream flows while continuing to support local wetlands. Permanent wetland desiccation is prevented and regional environmental water needs are met without impairing local ecological resources. Budget analysis is used to provide an initial cost estimate for acquiring water from agriculture through the short-term leasing program. The proposed approach is more expensive than traditional programs but allows contribution to instream flows without major wetland loss. Short-term leasing is a more efficient approach if benefits from wetlands exceed the difference in cost between the short-term lease program and programs that do not conserve wetlands.     

秦皇岛市工业企业需水量零增长预期分析

本文在对“九五”期间秦皇岛市工业用水情况认真分析的基础上,按照秦皇岛市“十五”计划和2010年远景目标对秦皇岛市2005年和2010年未来工业企业需水量进行了预测;同时对2020年和2030年进行了展望,综合分析预测的结果,提出了节水措施的建议,并对工业需水量的零增长进行了预期分析。     

Computer software tool REALM for sustainable water allocation and management

REALM (REsource ALlocation Model) is a generalised computer simulation package that models harvesting and bulk distribution of water resources within a water supply system. It is a modeling tool, which can be applied to develop specific water allocation models. Like other water resource simulation software tools, REALM uses mass-balance accounting at nodes, while the movement of water within carriers is subject to capacity constraints. It uses a fast network linear programming algorithm to optimise the water allocation within the network during each simulation time step, in accordance with user-defined operating rules. This paper describes the main features of REALM and provides potential users with an appreciation of its capabilities. In particular, it describes two case studies covering major urban and rural water supply systems. These case studies illustrate REALM's capabilities in the use of stochastically generated data in water supply planning and management, modelling of environmental flows, and assessing security of supply issues.     

Estimating the economic value of improvements in river ecology using choice experiments: an application to the water framework directive

The Water Framework Directive is a major regulatory reform of water resources management within the European Union. Integrated catchment management plans must be prepared for all river basins, in order to achieve 'good ecological status' in all EU waters. Ecological status is a broader measure of water quality than the chemical and biological measures that were previously dominant. The Directive calls for a consideration of the economic costs and benefits of improvements to ecological status. In this paper, we use the choice experiment method to estimate the value of improvements in three components of ecological status. Given the high resource cost of valuation studies, benefits transfer methods will be needed in implementing the Directive. We thus also test the ability of choice experiments for benefits transfer across two very similar rivers in the UK.     

Governmentality within China's South-North Water Transfer Project: tournaments,markets and water pollution

The control of water pollution in China's South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) is examined through the lens of promotion tournaments as Chinese governmentality to offer a special perspective on China's hydro-politics and Chinese manners of water pollution control. This paper characterizes the existing form of governmentality in the SNWTP, pointing to its problems and potential resolutions. The promotion tournament is a market system with authoritarian control, designed to reconcile the incentives of local officials and the central managers of the SNWTP. This governmentality embodies characteristics of China's authoritarian water management system: centralized personnel control combined with market-oriented promotion competitions. However, a clear conflict between the requirements of ecological modernization and the use of power in China's water management system leads to distorted behaviors among local officials, an important source of problems in China's water management system. Compared to promotion tournaments, payments for ecosystem services or eco-compensation are applications of neoliberal environmentalism that could overcome the shortcomings of tournaments, and become the most critical governmentality for water pollution control in the SNWTP.     

基于Meta分析的中国水资源价值移位研究

Meta分析价值移位方法是国际上资源价值评价领域关注的热点,国内相关研究较少。水作为重要的自然资源,研究其价值是解决我国水资源问题的关键途径。本文搜集我国水资源价值评估实证研究结果,建立效益移位基础数据库,应用基于Meta分析的函数效益移位方法,对我国水资源价值移位做实证研究,探讨效益移位法在我国水资源价值评估领域的可应用性及发展前景。结果表明:①水资源所在地、人口密度、水质、供水成本和利润以及对最大水费承受程度的差异会影响地区水资源价值变化;②模型平均移位误差在可接受范围内,可用于快速评估地区水资源价值;③省级层面水资源价值呈现出沿海高于内陆,华北、华东和西南高于其他地区的空间分异 规律。     

Criteria for equitable allocations: the heart of international water conflict

At the heart of most international water conflicts is the question of 'equitable' allocations, criteria for which are vague and often contradictory. However, application of an equitable water-sharing agreement along the volatile waterways of the globe is a prerequisite to hydropolitical stability. This article explores the question of equity measures for water-sharing agreements in the context of global hydropolitics and is divided into three parts. The Introduction provides a brief summary of the general principles of equitable allocations. The second part of the paper describes the practice of water resources allocations as exemplified in the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database - a computerized database of 149 treaties relating to international water resources compiled at Oregon State University; 49 of these treaties delineate specific water allocations. The third and fourth parts of the article contrast the principles and practice of water equity. It is noticeable how rarely the general principles are explicitly invoked, particularly the extreme principles of absolute sovereignty or absolute riverain integrity. Most treaties favor existing uses, and/or guarantees to downstream riparians. It is interesting that, while many international water negotiations begin with differing legal interpretations of rights, they often shift to a needs-based criteria for water allocations. Mostly, one is struck by the creativity of the negotiators in addressing specific language to each very specific local setting and concerns.     

南水北调对湖北省经济的影响

南水北调是一项跨流域、跨省市的远距离调水工程,它对沿线各省(市)的自然地理、人口、资源、社会、经济产生着不同的影响.通过分析南水北调工程(中线)对湖北省经济的促进与制约双重影响,并从全省水资源状况和南水北调工程实际出发,探讨了湖北省实施水资源综合利用战略的具体对策.     

Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents to Nutrient Dynamics in Aquatic Systems: A Review

Excessive nutrient loading (considering nitrogen and phosphorus) is a major ongoing threat to water quality and here we review the impact of nutrient discharges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to United States (U.S.) freshwater systems. While urban and agricultural land uses are significant nonpoint nutrient contributors, effluent from point sources such as WWTPs can overwhelm receiving waters, effectively dominating hydrological characteristics and regulating instream nutrient processes. Population growth, increased wastewater volumes, and sustainability of critical water resources have all been key factors influencing the extent of wastewater treatment. Reducing nutrient concentrations in wastewater is an important aspect of water quality management because excessive nutrient concentrations often prevent water bodies from meeting designated uses. WWTPs employ numerous physical, chemical, and biological methods to improve effluent water quality but nutrient removal requires advanced treatment and infrastructure that may be economically prohibitive. Therefore, effluent nutrient concentrations vary depending on the particular processes used to treat influent wastewater. Increasingly stringent regulations regarding nutrient concentrations in discharged effluent, along with greater freshwater demand in populous areas, have led to the development of extensive water recycling programs within many U.S. regions. Reuse programs provide an opportunity to reduce or eliminate direct nutrient discharges to receiving waters while allowing for the beneficial use of reclaimed water. However, nutrients in reclaimed water can still be a concern for reuse applications, such as agricultural and landscape irrigation.     

Application of a Physical Input–Output Table to Evaluate the Development and Sustainability of Continental Water Resources in Spain

Continental waters are complex resources in terms of a measurable physical quantity, and measuring them requires a good knowledge of total water availability. In this research, an accounting physical input–output table (PIOT) was applied to evaluate total water resources and gross annual availabilities at each stage of the natural-artificial water cycle. These stages are considered subsystems of a continental water resource system describing water transfers for an average year within 13 administrative basins of Spain. Water transfers between various subsystems are characterized by internal flows decreasing the water resource availabilities. The PIOT analysis establishes these internal flows, and the origins and final uses of the total resources for each subsystem. The input-output balance registered an unsustainable negative net accumulation in eight water basins. The PIOT analysis also allowed the calculation of significant indicators such as water resource developments (RDI) and their sustainable use (SUI). RDI and SUI demonstrate that groundwater is a critical resource affecting the environment (e.g., wetlands in the upper Guadiana) and the water supply (e.g., irrigation in the Segura basin). The results of this model suggest that above-/below-ground hydrological links are important when decisions have to be made in order to provide a satisfactory supply of water in Spain. The model integrates the different water basins under territorial criteria, and therefore it may be useful for the Spanish National Hydrological Plan.     

Water farms and transfer conflicts in Arizona,USA: A proposed resolution process

Water is a relatively scarce resource in Arizona, especially since the recent urban growth booms of Phoenix and Tucson. Arizona's 1980 Groundwater Management Act was the precursor to current water-transfer conflicts between urban buyers, rural farmers, and third parties. Water farms are bought with the intention to transfer their appurtenant groundwater to the two major metropolitan areas. As water markets have emerged, differing values and public interest issues have become apparent, while the state legislature attempts to resolve inequities. Site-specific transfer disputes, as well as policy-making conflicts, offer suitable situations for a mediation process. Equity- and efficiency-based criteria are suggested as the basis for resolving water-transfer conflicts, and a mediation process is proposed. However, third parties must develop an agenda, and a balance of power should be attained before mediation can effectively forge an agreement on water-transfer policies. The attainment of statewide policies generated through a mediated process has the potential to expand long-range regional water planning and management.     

THE REGULATED RIPARIAN VERSION OF THE ASCE MODEL WATER CODE: THE THIRD WAY TO ALLOCATE WATER1

ABSTRACT: Lawyers, engineers, and hydrologists are accustomed to thinking of water law as falling into one of two incompatible models: riparian rights (under which water is allocated by courts according to the relative reasonableness of the competing uses) and appropriative rights (under which water is allocated according to the temporal priority of the competing uses, largely by the action of the water users themselves but perfected by the issuance of an administrative permit). Usually unnoticed is the existence of a third approach, which I have dubbed “regulated riparianism.” Under regulated riparianism, water is allocated by water permits issued after an administrative determination of the reasonableness of the proposed use before the use is commenced. This system, now in place in about half of the states east of Kansas City (plus Hawaii), thus is fundamentally different from either the traditional ripanan rights that it replaces or the appropriative rights found in western states.     

A new and integrated hydro-economic accounting and analytical framework for water resources: a case study for North China

Water is a critical issue in China for a variety of reasons. China is poor of water resources with 2300m(3) of per capita availability, which is less than 13 of the world average. This is exacerbated by regional differences; e.g. North China's water availability is only about 271m(3) of per capita value, which is only 125 of the world's average. Furthermore, pollution contributes to water scarcity and is a major source for diseases, particularly for the poor. The Ministry of Hydrology [1997. China's Regional Water Bullets. Water Resource and Hydro-power Publishing House, Beijing, China] reports that about 65-80% of rivers in North China no longer support any economic activities. Previous studies have emphasized the amount of water withdrawn but rarely take water quality into consideration. The quality of the return flows usually changes; the water quality being lower than the water flows that entered the production process initially. It is especially important to measure the impacts of wastewater to the hydro-ecosystem. Thus, water consumption should not only account for the amount of water inputs but also the amount of water contaminated in the hydro-ecosystem by the discharged wastewater. In this paper we present a new accounting and analytical approach based on economic input-output modelling combined with a mass balanced hydrological model that links interactions in the economic system with interactions in the hydrological system. We thus follow the tradition of integrated economic-ecologic input-output modelling. Our hydro-economic accounting framework and analysis tool allows tracking water consumption on the input side, water pollution leaving the economic system and water flows passing through the hydrological system thus enabling us to deal with water resources of different qualities. Following this method, the results illustrate that North China requires 96% of its annual available water, including both water inputs for the economy and contaminated water that is ineligible for any uses.     

The USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program: Needs,Establishment, and Goals of a Water Census

Many reports have recognized the need for a national water census for the United States and have called upon the U.S. Geological Survey to undertake this challenge. For example, the National Science and Technology Council stated: “The United States has a strong need for an ongoing census of water that describes the status of our Nation's water resource at any point in time and identifies trends over time.” Responding to the need for this information, the U.S. Congress established the SECURE Water Act. The directives are to provide a more accurate assessment of the status of the water resources of the United States; determine the quantity of water available for beneficial uses; identify long‐term trends in water availability; assist in determination of the quality of the water resources; and develop the basis for an improved ability to forecast the availability of water for future economic, energy production, and environmental uses. This article provides summary and new information on the process and progress on work to estimate water budget components nationwide, involvement of stakeholder interests, efforts to examine water‐use characteristics throughout the Nation, studies of water availability in geographically focused areas and the initiation of methods to provide open access to existing and new water resources information contributing to Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) efforts and objectives.     

The politics of interbasin transfers: socio‐environmental impacts and actor strategies in Tunisia

Mediterranean wetlands are of key interest in the preservation of biodiversity. However, their ecological water requirement is in constant competition with human uses, particularly in a context of aridity and climate change. This paper examines the case of the Ichkeul Lake‐Lagoon system located in the north of Tunisia in a river basin that is heavily contributing to the water supply of southern regions through water transfers. It maps out the various actors involved, their stakes, discourses and strategies, and explains the current degradation of the Ichkeul system by unpacking the decision‐making power of these actors. It confirms that marginal social groups, ecosystems and next generations are the main parties affected by current water allocation patterns.