DESALTING SALINE WATER FOR IRRIGATION A CASE STUDY,COACHELLA AREA,CALIFORNIA1

ABSTRACT .A case study was performed to evaluate potential applications of desalted saline water for agriculture using 2 distillation type processes and 2 membrane type processes. The investigation determined the costs and benefits associated with desalting saline water at concentrations of 1,500, 900, 400, 200, and 50 ppm. Benefits from desalting are generated by shifts to more profitable crops, reduced costs for drainage, and reduction in fertilizer and labor requirements with better quality water. Costs are based on the project features such as desalting plants, raw water diversion facilities, storage reservoirs, conveyance and distribution systems, brine disposal, blending facilities, and gypsum addition systems. Hydrologic studies determined the crop irrigation requirements, water demand schedules, desalted water storage requirements, brine disposal requirements, and size of facilities required. Reconnaissance design layouts were made for producing desalted water using a combination of 14 schemes. The study also included a review of irrigation practices. The benefit-cost ratios range from 0.4 to 1.0 for 1,500 ppm irrigation water to 0.8 to 1.0 for 50 and 200 ppm water. Investment costs per acre are high, ranging from $12,900 to $20,900. Irrigation benefits are based on the increase in production from a desert condition with no water supply to the irrigation conditions studied.     

COST COMPARISON BETWEEN CESSPOOL AND SANITARY SEWERAGE SYSTEMS IN SAUDI URBAN AREAS1

ABSTRACT: Extensive use is made of on-site wastewater disposal systems of cesspools due to the absence of a sanitary sewerage system in Saudi urban areas. This system has caused the groundwater table to rise to a public nuisance level. A health risk has also evolved. There are several infrastructural, environmental, and social impacts from this, resulting in great financial losses. Examples are: surface water flooding, damage to foundations of buildings and asphalt street pavements, flooded basements and added construction costs required for excavation, dewatering, insulation materials, and special cements. Most of these costs are indirectly being paid by the private and public sectors. This study compares the estimated costs of damage and losses with the estimated costs of building, operating, and maintaining sanitary sewerage systems in the cesspool-served areas. The annual cost of the cesspool system, depending on the severity of the adverse impacts, ranges from 2.2 to 4.4 times the annual cost of the sanitary sewerage system. Remedies for these impacts are very expensive, and delays in the implementation of the sanitary sewerage facility will make the damage recovery more expensive, and in some cases, impossible. Thus, it is recommended that highest priority to be given to the sanitary sewerage systems in Saudi urban areas.     

NEW HAMPSHIRE WATER SYSTEMS: ENVIRONMENTAL AND OWNERSHIP CONSIDERATIONS1

An econometric model was developed to measure the influence of several environmentally oriented variables and an ownership variable upon the average total residential water costs for New Hampshire water systems. The implementation of leak detection programs, localized institutional rules and regulations, and hazardous waste inspection programs were statistically significant in influencing residential water costs. The existence of a water conservation program did not statistically influence these per unit costs. Water systems that were privately owned resulted in per unit costs that were higher relative to firms that were publicly owned.     

Rational forest productivity decline

A whole forest optimisation model was employed to examine economic behaviour as it relates to long term, forest productivity decline in the boreal forests of Ontario, Canada. Our productivity investment model(PIM) incorporated a choice between productivity decline as representedby a drop in forest Site Class, and a fee to 'maintain' site productivity. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the point at which these fees exceeded the value of the differential in timber volume between upper and lower site classes. By varying discount rate, 'productivity investment frontiers' were constructed, which highlight the effects of the magnitude in productivity decline, maintenance fees, and harvest flow constraints upon the occurrence and schedule of productivity declines. In presenting this simple approach to exploring the effects of economic choice upon forest productivity decline, the phenomena of 'natural capital divestment' within forestry is described.     

Social goals and the valuation of natural capital

Valuation ultimately refers to the contribution of an item to meeting a specific goal or objective. Conventional economic valuation is based on the goal of allocative efficiency. But other social goals may be equally, if not more, important. For example, the goals of social fairness and ecological sustainability have been identified as being at least of the samelevel of importance as allocative efficiency. This paper looks atthe role of social goals in determining the basis for valuation ofnatural capital and ecosystem services, and sketches the characteristics of a system of valuation that would give equal weight to all three of the major social goals mentioned above. It also places these goals within a more comprehensive conceptualmodel of the economy and its relationship to the ecological lifesupport system in which it is embedded.     

Measuring the wealth of nations

The sustainability of development is closely linked to changes intotal per capita wealth. This paper presents estimates of the wealth of nations for nearly 100 countries, broken down into produced assets, natural resources and human resources. While thelatter is the dominant form of wealth in virtually all countries,in low income natural resource exporters the share of natural resources in total wealth is equal to the share of produced assets. For low income countries in general, cropland forms thevast majority of natural wealth. The analysis suggests the process of development can be viewed as one of portfolio management: sustainable development entails saving the rents fromexhaustible resources, managing renewable resources sustainably,and investing savings in both produced assets and human resources.     

Conservation of Biodiversity: How Are We Doing?

A question rarely raised in discussions on biodiversity conservation, but surely the biggest question of all, is “How much time do we have left before the mass extinction underway surpasses our best efforts to contain it?” This prompts a further prime question because—and unlike all other problems, whether environmental or otherwise—the biotic crisis threatens to leave a severely impoverished planet for millions of years ahead; “Why do we not undertake the necessary actions to get on top of the problem before it gets on top of us?”     

Stayers versus movers: Social capital and early career imprinting among young professionals

We investigate what interfirm career mobility patterns would emerge if individuals are motivated by the job rewards they obtain as a function of their experience in organizations. We articulate two career strategies that individuals employ to navigate their early careers—commitment to a single employer and “job hopping” between different employers. Each strategy generates social capital (an individual's structure of social relations) but of a different kind. Embeddedness in the same organization over time develops a strong local identity and reputation within the firm. Boundary spanning through experience in different organizations creates opportunities for connecting people and ideas and for knowledge transfer between firms. We posit and present evidence that the choice between these two strategies is conditioned by social experience at the onset of one's career—the length of tenure with the first employer—which sorts individuals into “stayers” and “movers.”     

中国资本回报率:考虑碳减排成本的新核算

对资本回报率进行绿色核算既符合当前绿色发展的新理念,同时也是判断我国经济增长可持续性的重要依据。使用超越对数生产函数估算1960—2014年碳排放的影子价格;利用Hall-Jorgenson租金公式测算剔除碳减排成本的中国资本回报率的动态演变趋势。对中国资本回报率重新估算克服了因忽略碳减排成本而导致的高估,估算结果更加科学可靠。研究结果:(1)中国碳排放的影子价格由1960年的56.34元/t上升到2011年的1651.69/t,根据影子价格计算的碳减排成本占GDP总量的份额年均为31%。(2)不考虑碳减排成本和税收因素的基础资本回报率变动趋势可以划分为三个阶段。1952-1983年为第一阶段,资本回报率在波动中由高位逐步回落。1984—2010年是第二个阶段,基础资本回报率保持平稳。2011年以来是第三个阶段,这一阶段中国的资本回报率呈台阶式下降趋势,特别是2012—2014年,税后的资本回报率已经难以抵补企业投资的机会成本。(3)考虑碳减排成本将导致资本回报率平均下降约12%。其中1960—1975年资本回报率呈下降趋势。1976—2008年资本回报率基本保持稳定,资本回报率平均值为15.2%。2009年以后,资本回报率则表现出逐年下降的趋势,2014年的估算值甚至降为-1%。本文仅考虑了碳减排成本,如果再考虑诸如二氧化硫等废气排放、废水与固废排放的成本后,绿色资本回报率的估算值将更低。建议:在当前的经济形势下,应实施激励企业技术创新以及减税(尤其是生产税)政策遏制资本回报率下降的趋势。另外,需要采取分阶段递增的环境规制政策,逐步实现企业环境外部成本的内部化。