Environmental-Economic Accounting For Water Research Articles

Environmental-economic accounting for water: a global comparative analysis

Environmental-economic accounting for water: a global comparative analysis

Economic accounting of water: The Botswana experience

Water accounts aim to capture the value of water resources and their use within the economy. The accounts complement the National Accounts as the latter's main indicator (GDP) does not reflect changes in natural capital. Botswana developed water accounts for the period 2010/11–2014/15 using the UN's standard System of Environmental Economic Accounting for water (SEEA-water). The article focuses both on the construction of physical flow accounts as well as on the policy implications for development planning and water resource management through the use of policy indicators. It also shows long-term trends in water abstraction and water use efficiency linking the SEEA water accounts with results of earlier (non-SEEA) water accounting projects in Botswana. The water accounts results show that water abstraction and consumption have been largely stable since 2010/11 despite population (1.9% p.a.) and economic growth (around 5% p.a.) likely due to a combination of water sector reforms and drought conditions in south eastern Botswana; the latter led to the drying up of several dams and the imposition of severe water restrictions. While public attention focuses mostly on water service providers, self-providers (mines and the agricultural sector) account for more than 50% of total water abstracted from the environment of water, demonstrating the need to pay more attention to self-providers in IWRM implementation. Water consumption is highest for the agricultural sector (70.2 Mm3) followed by households and mines at 41.2 and 39 Mm3 respectively in 2014/15. In terms of water use efficiency, value added per m3 has increased in time, showing (some) decoupling of water consumption and economic growth. This positive trend needs to be enhanced in the pursuit of economic diversification, which should focus on growth of water-efficient economic sectors. Finally, per capita water consumption has decreased over time; while this may indicate that people conserve water, it may also point at delivery problems associated with water sector reforms. This requires further analysis.

Water Productivity under Drought Conditions Estimated Using SEEA-Water

This paper analyzes the impact of droughts on agricultural water productivity in the period 2004–2012 in the Guadalquivir River Basin using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water). Relevant events in this period include two meteorological droughts (2005 and 2012), the implementation of the Drought Management Plan by the basin's water authority (2006, 2007 and 2008), and the effects of irrigated area modernization (water-saving investment). Results show that SEEA-Water can be used to study the productivity of water and the economic impact of the different droughts. Furthermore, the results reflect the fact that irrigated agriculture (which makes up 65% of the gross value added, or GVA, of the total primary sector) has considerably higher water productivity than rain-fed agriculture. Additionally, this paper separately examines blue water productivity and total water productivity within irrigated agriculture, finding an average productivity of 1.33 EUR/m3 and 0.48 EUR/m3, respectively.

Research on Cost Evaluation of Water Depletion

As a subsidiary account of the system of environmental-economic accounting (SEEA), the system of environmental-economic accounting for water (SEEAW) includes water depletion cost as an important component. The water depletion cost, which is different from the evaluation of non-renewable resources depletion value, is currently difficult to evaluate in SEEAW. The method proposed in the study is based on two aspects: (i) from the perspective of the renewability of water resources, the concept of water depletion caused by human activities and its calculation are presented; (ii) the shadow price of water resources is obtained based on water hybrid accounts of SEEAW, and it is used to calculate the water depletion cost. The approach is then applied to estimate the water depletion cost in mainland China. Overall, the results presented here provide important theoretical and technical support for SEEAW.

Method for Cost Evaluation of the Environmental Degradation of Water

Evaluation of the cost of the environmental degradation of water is one of the difficulties in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water. In this study, the concept of the cost of the environmental degradation of water was analyzed for the first time. Based on a discussion of evaluation methods related to environmental degradation of water at home and abroad, and the characteristics of the cost of the environmental degradation of water, a set of relatively complete and operational methods to evaluate the cost of the environmental degradation of water was proposed. The calculation results obtained using the Taihu Basin as an example showed that the cost of the environmental degradation of water based on the damage assessment method was four times greater than that based on the cost assessment method. These findings indicate that source control of pollutants provides environmental protection, while reducing the cost of the environmental degradation of water and avoiding economic losses.