Water Scarcity and Conflicts

This chapter presents the concept of the establishment of a futures market in water in the context of the risk of water availability that Indian agriculture has been facing in the recent years. In the process, the chapter argues how the development of such a market can actually reduce the scarcity value of water, and may help in reducing the intensity of conflicts over water resources.

Valuation and Market-Based Pricing of Economic and Ecosystem Services of Water Resources

This chapter presents a comprehensive review of valuation of water. Though existing literature has a large number of papers on the significant attempts at valuing water, a number of publications only consider certain specific aspects of water pricing, rarely attempting a comprehensive review. Water pricing, whether by government mandate or in practice, has to take into consideration a host of concerns, and hence cannot be confined to bounds of individual disciplines. This chapter presents a survey that attempts to resolve this gap by summarizing accumulated knowledge on valuation of water resources and dealing separately with valuation of water in the economic and the ecosystem sectors. Under each component, a host of studies attempting valuation of water have been reviewed. Finally, the policy implications of water pricing have also been discussed in light of the scarcity value theory.

Environmental Vulnerability to Climate Change in Mediterranean Basin

The Mediterranean basin (MB) connects the south with the north and the East (Europe, Africa & Asia).It is a highly heterogeneous region where natural and anthropogenic activities interact in complex ways with climate variability. Climate change (CC) impacts are already defined on the Mediterranean. That is why the time has come to formulate a long-term plan for adaptation to CC of the MB. In this chapter the author aims (i) the assessment of the environmental vulnerability under CC provided in the BM during the last 30 years, (ii) the determination of environmental vulnerability indicators that the author call Major Common Indicators (MCI), and (iii) identification of adaptation strategies based on these indicators. For this analysis the author used the results of the Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), developed by SOPAC. In this paper, the author extracted, compiled, compared and analyzed the data of the EVI of 8 selected Mediterranean countries; 4 countries in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt) and 4 Southern Europe (Spain, France, Italy and Greece).

Youths' Social Traits in Water Management as a Precursor for Good Water Governance

Today's youths are yesterday's future generation and tomorrow's guardian of future generations. Successful water governance requires the sustainable management of water resources which in turn implies the maximisation of economic, social and environmental goals. This research, whilst focusing on the social traits of the current youth cohort, forms the basis of a wider national survey amongst Maltese society in order to identify their economic, social and environmental traits as one of the basis for developing a robust water governance framework for Malta. The research shows that whilst there is a solid foundation in the current youth crop to build upon for effective water governance, there is still considerable work that needs to be undertaken in order to raise awareness amongst a sizeable component of the current youth cohort.

Youths' Economic and Regulatory Traits in Water Resources Management as a Precursor for Good Water Governance

Good water governance needs to ensure, amongst others, the sustainability of water resources. Sustainability needs to be secured by optimising economic and social goals whilst safeguarding the rights of future generations. In developing a water governance framework it is imperative to understand the perceptions of society in order to determine which portions of the framework are acceptable and those which will require more effort to overcome current perceptions. In safeguarding the resource for its enjoyment by future generations it is worth understanding, even at this stage, youth perceptions in the light that they will be the leaders of tomorrow and the core of society. To this effect a national survey was undertaken and 13 statements demonstrate statistical significance amongst youths. These are analysed with a view towards better understanding the perception of youths towards the economic aspect of water.

Adaptive Coevolution

Climate change is having a significant impact on water resources globally; more so in developing countries due to lower resilience and weakened coping mechanisms. Water resource and supply management systems need to be adaptive to the uncertainty and unpredictability posed by this challenge. The current water crisis is mainly that of governance within the water sector. On this premise, this chapter seeks to explore the adaptiveness of water management institutions and systems to climate change impacts, with a focus on Kenya's case. Kenya continues to face numerous challenges relating to water supply, which are further exacerbated by climate change. Prior to the development of key legislative and institutional frameworks, through adoption of the Water Act 2002, the water sector grappled with gross mismanagement, manifested via inefficiency in water service provision and resource degradation. Deploying the conceptual model of adaptive (co)-management institutional prescription of polycentric governance, experimentation, public participation, and management of bioregional scale, this chapter stands to contribute novel insights into designing sustainable, adaptive water governance regimes.

Management and Modeling of Waste Water Treatment Systems

In this chapter wastewater treatment and water resource management are discussed and analyzed. The goal of this chapter is to deepen the knowledge of application of adequate, precise process eco-technologies in the wastewater treatment from scientific and applicative aspect. This represents an ongoing problem in the modern process eco-engineering. The appropriate wastewater management issue is regulated by domestic and EU regulative as well as through recommendations of several relevant water and wastewater management associations worldwide. This chapter elaborates the application of SuperPro Designer software for modeling of a wastewater treatment plant, considering the technological, technical, environmental and financial aspects. Regarding the management of a wastewater treatment system, the application of an appropriate control system is essential from an engineer's point of view. The SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) control systems were found to be most adequate and effective control systems practically applied to real life wastewater treatment systems.

What Price for Ecosystem Services in China?

Payment for Environmental Services (PES) in the watershed has been widely adopted as an important policy instrument to compensate upstream water users for providing water quality improvement for the whole river basin. In this paper, we use three independent valuation methods to determine the price of ecosystem service (ES), particularly water quality, in Miyun Reservoir, the main surface water source for Beijing. We find that the value of water quality is lowest using opportunity cost of limitation of development rights (OCLDR), highest with contingent valuation method (CVM), and water resources benefits assessment (WRBA) gives an in-between value. OCLDR determines the size of subsidies from those that benefit from water quality improvement from upstream. WRBA is a reference for compensation criteria to the upstream government and farmers when water resources are transferred across jurisdictional boundaries. CVM not only captures the direct value of water quality improvement, but also the indirect value of improvement in other ecosystem services as a result of improvement in water quality. Based on the results, we propose a multi-level ecological compensation system for the Miyun Reservoir river basin. We use OCLDR to determine subsides/ compensation to upstream farmers and other suppliers of the ES; WRBA set the price of water transfer; and CVM to figure out the size of payments for integrated water quality improvement.

“Virtual Water” and Occam's Razor

Virtual Water has been criticized as merely being a jargon camouflaging crop-water requirements. This chapter attempts to contest this argument. From the neoclassical production theory, it is argued that virtual water cannot simply be expressed in terms of crop-water requirements. Rather, the notion of virtual water imports has deep economics embedded in it, along with tremendous social implications. This chapter brings to surface the new economics of water management that is deeply rooted in the notion of virtual water imports.

Climate Change Impacts on Surface Water Quality

Climate change affects water resources through changes in evaporation, groundwater recharge, temperature, runoff and rainfall. Such changes affect the mobilization of nutrients, distribution and mobility of pollutants in freshwater systems. The direct and indirect climate change impacts on water quality comprise biological, physical and chemical changes. Biological changes include pathogenic microbes in water. Physical changes include increased water temperature, reduced river and lake ice cover, more stable vertical stratification and less mixing of water of deep-water lakes, and changes in water discharge, affecting water level and retention time. Chemical changes include increased nutrient concentrations, water color and decreased oxygen content. However, few scientific works have been recently published on the impacts of climate change on water quality modification. This chapter fills a real gap because there has been no comprehensive review on climate change and river water quality to date. It focuses on the expected water quality impacts of climate change.