Trade-off between equity and efficiency for allocating wastewater emission permits in watersheds considering transaction

Abstract

As the management of wastewater emission permits in watershed has become a growing worldwide concern, a substantial challenge has been created in balancing the social stability, economic construction, and ecological function. Therefore, the equitable and efficient allocation of wastewater emission permits in watershed integrating sustainability is vital for environmental management. Considering the wastewater discharge permits transaction between subareas, a multi-objective model is proposed to analyze the allocation of wastewater emission permits in a watershed. The first objective function is to maximize the allocation equity using the environmental Gini coefficient, and the second is to maximize the economic efficiency for the sustainable development of a watershed as the constraint. In this study, the trade-off between the equity and economic efficiency of allocation is balanced. A case study of the Tuojiang River Basin in China is conducted to demonstrate the feasibility, rationality and practicality of the model. The multi-principle and multi-objective allocation model was found to be more reliable and feasible than the previous models, indicating that the equity and efficiency should be balanced to mitigate the water scarcity and deteriorating water quality when managing the basin, and trading is an effective measure for ensuring the equity.