Multidimensional analysis of the water-poverty nexus using a modified Water Poverty Index: a case study from Jordan

Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 826-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hatem Jemmali ◽  
Lina Abu-Ghunmi

Water as a strategic natural resource is of fundamental importance for human development, prosperity, and poverty alleviation. Over the last three decades, Jordan's water resources have been severely degraded, threatening the livelihoods of countless people, particularly in rural and poor communities. The inadequate provision of water-related facilities has contributed to the rapid decline in quantity and degradation of quality in these communities. This study depicts the theoretical foundations and development of a water-focused and thematic indicator of poverty, which allow a comprehensive understanding of the crosscutting nature of water issues and impacts. It is with this in mind that a modified Water Poverty Index (mWPI) is developed herein to exemplify the utilization of the index, and to test its applicability and validity at the Jordanian governorate's level. The results show that water poverty fluctuates broadly between northern and southern regions suggesting a need for location-specific management plans and more targeted policy interventions. Overall, the mWPI, as a holistic tool, can assist decision-makers and other stakeholders in achieving sustainability and can be used to communicate the progress of sustainability to the wider community.

Water Policy ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 397-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cullis ◽  
Dermot O Regan

This paper shows how water poverty mapping using census data and the Water Poverty Index can be used to identify effectively the most water-poor households in a region for the targeting of water supply development policies and projects. The main findings come from a case study conducted in the Estcourt municipal district in South Africa where simple water poverty maps were developed using readily available data sources at three different scales: enumerator area, place names and sub-catchment. The efficiency of targeting the most water-poor households using the different scales of water poverty maps were measured by comparing both the inclusion and exclusion rates of targeting and comparing them with other similar targeting studies. The distribution of water poverty within a community was also compared with the results of a detailed household questionnaire conducted as part of the broader development of the water poverty index (WPI). The main conclusion from the study is that water poverty mapping is a strong visual extension of the WPI that has great potential for providing a practical way for water management authorities and decision makers to identify and target the most water poor households and monitoring the impacts and tangible benefits of water supply development policies.


2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Giné Garriga ◽  
A. Pérez Foguet

The Water Poverty Index (WPI) has been recognized as a useful tool in policy analysis. The index integrates various physical, social and environmental aspects to enable more holistic assessment of water resources. However, soundness of this tool relies on two complementary aspects: (i) inadequate techniques employed in index construction would produce unreliable results, and (ii) poor dissemination of final outcome would reduce applicability of the index to influence policy-making. From a methodological point of view, a revised alternative to calculate the index was developed in a previous study. This paper is therefore concerned not with the method employed in index construction, but with how the composite can be applied to support decision-making processes. In particular, the paper examines different approaches to exploit the index as a policy tool. A number of alternatives to disseminate achieved results are presented. The implications of applying the composite at different spatial scales are highlighted. Turkana District, in Kenya has been selected as initial case study to test the applicability and validity of the index. The paper concludes that the WPI approach provides a relevant tool for guiding appropriate action and policy-making towards more equitable allocation of water resources.


Author(s):  
Zhaorunqing Liu ◽  
Wenxin Liu

Guaranteeing sustainable development is a pressing issue in China. To this end, balancing economic development and the protection of limited water resources enables healthy and orderly economic development. This study details the application of a water poverty index and sustainable livelihoods approach using 25 indicators to evaluate the water situation and the economic situation in rural China from 1997 to 2019. The analysis results suggest the need for location-specific policy interventions. In addition, we determined whether the water poverty and economic poverty or their spatial types featured the phenomenon of agglomeration. This study also proposes a harmonious development (HD) model and found a significant relationship between water poverty and economic poverty. Next, we adopted a spatial and temporal perspective to analyze the causes of variation in HD level using the modified Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) model and defined four HD levels using a classification method. The results revealed that the overall HD level was higher in the east than in the west. In conclusion, water poverty is associated with economic poverty; thus, there is a need for water and economic assistance strategies in pro-poor policies. The research findings also serve as a theoretical foundation for policies aimed at resolving conflicts between water use and economic development in rural China.


2010 ◽  
Vol 439-440 ◽  
pp. 743-748
Author(s):  
Bao Zhu Li ◽  
Ran Bi ◽  
Qing Zhang

The index system of the E-commerce websites is qualitative, but almost all of them are lack of weights. This paper built a reasonable index system and used the decision-making method ANP to improve the traditional evaluation method. Theoretical foundations and application process of ANP were discussed; dependence and feedback among indices were analyzed. A case study was done by using the Super Decisions software, the result of which can be used for decision-makers.


Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hatem Jemmali ◽  
Mohamed Salah Matoussi

Combining the measure of water availability and the socio-economic capacity to access it gives new insights in the fields of water resources management and poverty alleviation. This approach lets researchers think about new multidimensional water scarcity indexes that have contributed to the definition of the water poverty index (WPI). The methodology first used for the calculation of this aggregate index was based on an equally weighted average of its five components (resources, capacity, access, use and environment). The main objective of this paper is to improve this procedure by using an objective weighting scheme. For this purpose we use principal component analysis to give more weight to components with larger variance and to discard components with very small ones. This improved WPI is applied in the case of Tunisia. We have obtained relevant results which could help policy makers to devise better policies to alleviate water poverty in the Inland region which was where the Tunisian revolution began.


2019 ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Milena Lakicevic ◽  
Keith Reynolds ◽  
Bojan Srdjevic

This paper demonstrates the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Pro?cess (AHP) in assessing landscape plans using the option of abbreviated pair-wise comparisons to simplify the weight elicitation process for decision makers. Whereas the standard AHP elicitation procedure requires a full set of pairwise comparisons among all criteria at each node of the decision hierarchy in order to derive criterion weights for the decision model, the abbreviated pairwise method uses a minimal spanning set of pairwise comparisons, and remaining comparisons are then derived by transitivity rules. In this paper is presented the abbreviated pairwise method with a case study in which alternative management plans are evaluated for the Zvezdarska forest of Belgrade, Serbia. The analysis was performed with the Criterium DecisionPlus software, which fully implements the AHP methodology, and provides useful diagnostics on AHP decision models. As a conclusion, some of the key advantages and disadvantages of the abbreviated pairwise variant of the AHP method are demonstrated. One of the key qualities of the Criterium DecisionPlus software is a clear and easy graphical representation of the results.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujata Manandhar ◽  
Vishnu Prasad Pandey ◽  
Futaba Kazama

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