Abstract
To reduce groundwater overexploitation and alleviate water shortages, market mechanisms are introduced to allocate water rights. Scientific and reasonable pricing of groundwater rights is key to ensuring the effectiveness of the groundwater market. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of water resources, this study calculates the price of groundwater rights based on the value of water resources with an evaluation indicator system. The system includes 14 indicators developed with a fuzzy mathematics model addressing three dimensions: environment, society, and economy. The weights of the indicators are determined through the analytic network process (ANP) and the entropy method. The results show that the price of groundwater rights in Ningxia, China increased from 5.11 yuan/m3 to 5.73 yuan/m3 between 2013 and 2017; this means the price was basically stable, with a slight increase. The ratio of residents’ water fee expenditures to real disposable income also remained essentially stable, fluctuating around 0.37%, far below the normal level. These data demonstrated that the current regional water price policy does not reflect the true value of groundwater resources; there is room to increase urban water prices. Local governments need speed up water price system reforms and adopt water rights systems to optimize water resource allocations.
Highlights
Due to the decrease of the total amount of water resources caused by the uncertainty of global climate change, water resources are becoming increasingly strained
The model used in this study to quantitatively evaluate the price of groundwater rights in Ningxia can be divided into two parts: the groundwater rights fuzzy evaluation model and the price calculation model
In the groundwater rights fuzzy evaluation model, we calculate the fuzzy value of groundwater rights, which is combined with the price vector to calculate the price
Summary
Due to the decrease of the total amount of water resources caused by the uncertainty of global climate change, water resources are becoming increasingly strained. Groundwater has become an important supplement to surface water, and is attracting more and more attention. China has always been faced with water shortage problems of varying degrees, and the growing large population and uneven distribution aggravates the water resources management dilemma [1,2]. According to the statics from the ministry of water resources of the People’s Republic of China (MWRPRC), the per capita availability of water in China ranked just 108th in the world, making it one of the 21 most water-scarce countries worldwide, and has only 25% of the world’s average level. With continuous development, groundwater overexploitation and groundwater pollution are becoming the main factors restricting sustainable development
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