Supply Management Measures Research Articles

Earn a living? What the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana cocoa living income differential might deliver on its promise

Despite the high value of the global chocolate market and the high profitability of the few multinational companies dominating it, the farmers growing cocoa beans remain poor. To change this, the two biggest cocoa producers, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, have jointly introduced the cocoa Living Income Differential (LID) policy. Charging higher prices for beans, the policy might help mitigate both poverty and the serious child labour and deforestation issues associated with cocoa farming, for which poverty is regarded as a root cause. Nevertheless, the design of the policy and the current lack of complementary measures raise doubts about the success and longevity of the policy and concerns about the implications for farmers in other countries. Accounting for the repercussions with international cocoa markets, this study quantifies the magnitude of the policy’s effects in the LID countries and elsewhere under several alternative configurations of policies and market reactions with the support of model simulations and finds increases in farmer income ranging from zero to sizeable. Discussing the policy’s potential impacts in the past and present context of the cocoa industry, it identifies a number of issues threatening its sustainability. Moreover, it underlines the strong dependence of the policy’s success on chocolate manufacturers’ support unless complemented by supply management measures. Such measures could limit the aggravation of, or even improve, the income situation for farmers elsewhere and the child labour and deforestation issues.

Power Supply Safety Management of High-risk Customers of Regional Grid

Flourishing of domestic electric power industry contributes to the development of various industries and fields, particularly the promotion and popularization of intelligent distribution network, meeting people’s working and living power demand. However, the continuous improvement of the scale and quantity of electric power projects increases the overall difficulty of power supply and distribution management. To be specific, not only modern control technology needs to be applied and advanced power supply & consumption equipment needs to be used, but also scientific and rational power supply & distribution scheme needs to be formulated to ensure the operation reliability of distribution network. In view of this, the paper studies the safety management of power enterprises. First of all, it sets out the defining scope of high-risk customers with the high-risk customers of regional grid acting as the study object, and then, it points out the power supply & distribution safety management problem of high-risk customers, finally, it proposes safe power supply management measures and optimization suggestions from technology, equipment, personnel and management, hoping to provide the practitioners concerned with reference.

DÉTERMINATION DE LA MEILLEURE SÉQUENCE D’INVESTISSEMENT HYDRAULIQUE PAR L’APPLICATION DE L’ANALYSE COÛT EFFICACITÉ. CAS DU BASSIN CÔTIER ALGÉROIS

Our work consists in finding, through the application of the cost-effectiveness analysis method, the optimal investment sequence, that would cover, with a lower cost, the future water demand in the Algerian coastal basin 02a, by the horizon 2030. Eight supply management and demand management measures were studied and the results show that demand management measures, which promote water saving and the rational use of this resource, have better cost effectiveness ratios than supply management measures. The ranking of these cost-effectiveness ratios allows us to stagger and prioritize the different investment projects in the water sector, with the aim of achieving the dual objective, social (meeting the water demand) and economic (minimize public spending).

Impact assessment of supply-side and demand-side policies on energy consumption and CO2 emissions from urban passenger transportation: The case of Istanbul

The transportation sector accounts for about a quarter of global energy consumption and energy-related carbon emissions. To design and realize sustainable urban transportation, it is vital to understand and analyze interactions between a set of dynamic factors that shape transportation patterns, behaviors, and impacts. To this end, this study aims to develop a systems dynamics (SD) model for Istanbul, Turkey to simulate its urban motorized passenger transport system for analyzing numerous policies under different scenarios and assessing their potential effects in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the upcoming years. The constructed SD model includes four subsystems: population, household disposable income, transport, and energy and CO2 emissions. Based on historical data (2000–2015) and model validation processes, the energy consumption and the associated CO2 emissions from motorized passenger transport are forecasted for the following scenarios. The first one is business as usual scenario (BAU) which is designed to show how energy use and the associated CO2 emissions would evolve over time with the current development plans. The second and third scenarios constitute supply management measures (SMM) which consider different levels of improvements in the fuel economy of the vehicle fleet and reduced carbon emission intensity in electricity generation through increased share of renewable energy use. The fourth and fifth scenarios consider travel demand management (TDM) policies that include different levels of transport cost increase, and trip length reduction. Finally, the last two scenarios include integrated scenarios that are composed of the SMM and TDM options. In detail, compared to the BAU scenario, integrated scenario considers (1) a 10% improvement in the fuel economy of the vehicles, (2) a 10% reduction in the emission intensity of electricity generation, (3) a 30% increase in the transportation cost, and (4) a 15% reduction in the trip lengths. Under the BAU scenario, the SD model shows that energy consumption per capita from passenger trips will increase from 183 L of oil equivalent in 2016 to 315 L of oil equivalent in 2025 while the associated CO2 emissions per capita will increase from 460 kg in 2016 to 807 kg in 2025. To combat this dramatic growth, the findings indicate that the ambitious integrated scenario achieves the lowest energy consumption and CO2 emissions by offering a 33.5% expected reduction in total energy consumption and a 32.8% expected reduction in total CO2 emissions.

Effects of climate change on agriculture water demand in lower Pak Phanang river basin, southern part of Thailand

The aim of the research is to analyse the effects on agricultural water demand in the Lower Pak Phanang River Basin area due to climate change. The climate data used in the analysis were rainfall, maximum, minimum, and average temperatures. The climate datasets were obtained from statistical downscaling of global circulation model under the CMIP5 project by means of bias correction with Optimizing Quantile Mapping implemented by the Hydro and Agro Informatics Institute. To determine agriculture water demand, reference evapotranspiration (ETo) based on Hargreaves method was calculated for both baseline climate data (1987-2015) and forecasted climate data in 2038. For agriculture water demand in the Pak Phanang river basin, we considered paddy field, palm oil, rubber, grapefruit, orchard, vegetable, ruzy and biennial crop, based on land use data of the Land Development Department of Thailand in 2012. The results showed that forecasted agriculture water demand in 2038 with existing land use data in 2012 will be increased with the average of 18.9% or 61.78 MCM as compared to baseline climate condition. Both water demand and supply management measures would be suitably prepared before facing unexpected situation.

Index-Based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis vs. Least-Cost River Basin Optimization Model: Comparison in the Selection of a Programme of Measures at the River Basin Scale

Increasing water scarcity challenges conventional approaches to managing water resources. More holistic tools and methods are required to support the integrated planning and management of fresh water resources at the river basin level. This paper compares an index-based cost-effectiveness analysis (IBCEA) with a least-cost river basin optimization model (LCRBOM). Both methods are applied to a real case study to design a cost-effective portfolio of water demand and supply management measures that ensures compliance with water supply and environmental targets. The IBCEA is a common approach to select programmes of measures in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. We describe its limitations in finding a least-cost solution at the river basin level and highlight the benefits from implementing a LCRBOM. Both methods are compared in a real case study, the Orb river basin, in the south of France. The performances of the programmes of measures selected by the two methods are compared for the same annual equivalent cost. By ignoring the spatial and temporal variability of water availability and water demands in the river basin and the interconnection among its elements, the aggregated approach used in the standard IBCEA can miss more cost-effective solutions at the river basin scale.