Water Market Research Articles

Water quality and incentive coordination in water markets: The eastern route of China’s South-North Water Transfer Project

The large-scale implementation of water market programs worldwide has increased attention, while little research has paid attention to the water quality-related incentive coordination in water markets. Through the case of the water market of the East Route of China’s South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP-ER), this study adopts a differential game perspective to examine the role of coordination mechanisms in water markets critically. By drawing on a large number of literature, which conceptualizes the incentives of the water market as rooted in market environmentalism, this study opens up the view on incentive-compatible coordination in water markets. By combining the numerical illustration of SNWTP-ER, this study finds that the coordination mechanism can mobilize a series of incentive-compatible coordination techniques and practices to achieve the optimal state of individuals and society simultaneously. In addition, the incentive-compatible coordination mechanism overcomes current water markets’ inability to improve water quality and water allocation simultaneously, reflecting that market environmentalism may be a feasible solution to environmental crises. Finally, designing an incentive-compatible coordination mechanism in water markets is still challenging. The mechanism depends not only on the price and quality elasticity of water demand but also on finding the optimal coordination coefficient.

Why is water illiquid?: The NQH2O water index futures

AbstractThe newly launched water futures market faces a serious illiquidity problem with scarce trading volume. We examine the causes of the illiquidity based on the futures contract design literature and empirical analysis of spot water markets in the western United States. The primary cause of illiquidity is a lack of effective hedging demand for water futures due to the heterogeneity and limited size of spot water markets. The opaqueness of the water futures settlement index further deters the participation of traders. Moreover, the lack of public information on spot water market transactions also reduces its attraction to speculators.

Market-based groundwater resources allocation mechanism: An inter-sectoral water exchanges programming analysis

This study aims to analyze the effects of local water market formation in a limited region of the Gavkhuni Basin, located in the center of Iran. An economic optimization mathematical model, called ‘inter-sectoral water exchanges programming’ (IWEP), is developed to address the study objectives. The proposed model seeks to maximize the net benefit of participating agents in the water market mechanism. This model can determine the scope of production activities and the monthly volume of water exchange through different technical methods of water transfer. Results demonstrate that the agriculture sector contributes to an increase in the productions of the agriculture industries and building industries through selling its surplus water. Although farm agents sell only 1% of their groundwater permits to industrial agents, the total net benefit of the agents is increased by more than 30%, compared to when the water market is not implemented. The shared aquifer method, based on common pool groundwater resources, is identified as a suitable technical method for water transfer in the groundwater markets. Finally, the socio-hydrological analysis of groundwater exchanges reveals that the inter-sectoral water market at the local scale can increase the region's employment rate by 45% and mitigate more pressure on the aquifer to meet water demands in the industry sector. These results clarify the efficient role of market-based groundwater allocation approach under water scarcity conditions. • Inter-sectoral water exchanges programming (IWEP) model is developed to analyze the economic impacts of the groundwater exchanges. • The IWEP model determines the optimal production amount of different agricultural and industrial products under techno-economic simulations. • The superiority of the market-based water allocation mechanism is confirmed in the face of water scarcity. • The shared aquifer method is proposed as a suitable technical method for water transfer in local groundwater markets. • The positive role of the inter-sectoral water market mechanism in socio-hydrological issues are clarified by adopting adaptive control policies.

Comparative Analysis of Cost and Efficiency in Water Use of Groundwater Market Participating and NonParticipating Farms in Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu

Crop production and human survival primarily depends on available freshwater resources, where upto 70% of the resource is used for irrigation purpose either as surface water or groundwater. Lack of surface water resources increases the dependence on groundwater. Ground water is the backbone of available fresh water resources. Country’s economic growth is always dependant on high market opportunity and in-order to boom agricultural economy of our country, groundwater market plays a vital role. This is a highly sensitive market as it has multiple dependant factors like growing population, effective water usage, availability, water restoration which changes demand and decides the role of water market. Although water market is an informal structure, the demand and availability leads the exchange of water for monetary value charged on the basis of area, volume and time. Due to increase in demand and decrease in availability which is caused by various environmental factors, water market plays a vital role in overall contribution towards agrarian economy. This study tries to compare the cost and water use efficiency between water participating and non-participating farms in cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.

The GERD dam in the water dispute between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. A scenario analysis in an ecosystem approach between physical and geopolitical geography

<abstract> <p>This paper examines the transboundary water resources conflict resolution mechanisms. Although different research perspectives, including social planner, water market, game theory, static and dynamic systems engineering model, have already provided conflict resolution mechanisms that could be used to analyze transboundary water conflicts, here an ecosystemic approach based on an analytical model, is proposed. For this aim the case of GERD "Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam" on Nile Azzurro, is analyzed. The scenario of the GERD dam, besides being current and interesting in the water dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, is suitable for the application of the proposed analytical model. This model could permit researchers and practitioners to develop more comprehensive mechanisms, complementary to political strategies, with stronger analytical capacity to analyze the different elements of the process of transboundary water dispute resolution.</p> </abstract>

Feasibility analysis of water resources market transaction of water diversion project based on evolutionary game

Abstract Water diversion projects realize the change of water rights ownership by diverting water resources, but most of the water diversion projects are dominated by the government in the operation stage, which can't realize complete market-oriented transaction of resources. In this study, the water source area, project management department and users involved in water resources trading of a water diversion project are regarded as stakeholders, and an evolutionary game model is established to analyze the feasibility and restrictive conditions of the free trading of water resources in the water diversion project. The research results show that the three parties can realize the balance and stability of interests (the water source area supplies good water, the project management department supplies sufficient water, users take water according to the supply), which means that the water market transactions are feasible. Meanwhile, it also gives clear restrictions on the water price of the three parties transaction: the project management department water price for purchase is less than on the premise of lower than + , the sale water price is not higher than . The free trading of water resources in the water diversion project under the market mechanism is of great significance for clarifying the water rights and reducing the financial pressure of the government.

On a novel integration of a multistage absorption heat pump with a balanced humidification-dehumidification desalination unit

• A novel absorption system coupled with a desalination unit is investigated. • A single-double-effect absorption can produce desalinated water and a cooling effect. • Energy input from both natural gas and a waste-heat source in the proposed system. • Results reveal that the system daily produces 110–225 L of water at 0.0042–0.0068$/l. • The system has a coefficient of performance of 1.06 and a gained-output ratio of 4.15–8.5. • For optimum performance, the absorber and feed to be around 45 °C, 30–35 °C, respectively. This study investigates a novel cooling-desalination system having a single-double-effect absorption heat pump coupled with a humidification-dehumidification desalination unit. A waste-heat source drives the system in addition to natural gas. Using a waste-heat source lowers the cost of the desalinated water and thus gives the proposed system considerable attention in the water market. The results reveal that the system can produce desalinated water of about 110 l per day for 0.0068 $/l with a gained output ratio of 4.15. When the air extraction technique is applied, the daily water production and the gained output ratio increase to 225 l and 8.5, respectively. The corresponding water cost drops to 0.0042 $/l. Besides, the system has a coefficient of performance and cooling capacity of 1.06 and 0.8 kW, respectively. The performance results show that for optimal performance, the absorber and the feed saline water temperatures should be around 45 °C and 30–35 °C, respectively. Further, compared with other absorption/humidification-dehumidification configurations, a promising performance of the proposed system is observed.

Integrating Economic Value of Environmental Services and Carbon Stock: A Case Study from Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park

As a conservation area, national parks play essential roles in environmental services provision and have the potential to support the REDD+ program. This study aims to estimate appropriate incentives for national parks based on carbon units by integrating the economic value of environmental services and carbon stock provided by the lowland dry forest ecosystem in Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park (BNWNP) consisted of North Sulawesi and Gorontalo areas. Carbon stock was estimated by establishing sample plots, including five carbon pools. While the economic valuation of environmental services includes biodiversity using the market approach, ecotourism using the zonal travel cost method, and water service using simulation water regulation services method and market approach. The total ecosystem carbon stock in BNWNP is estimated at 73.67 Mton. Meanwhile, the estimation of the economic value of environmental services is about IDR 70.57 trillion. Based on these results, the appropriate carbon values are IDR 683,308 and IDR 1,304,238 per ton carbon for the lowland dry forest ecosystem in Gorontalo and North Sulawesi areas. This result indicates that given its essential environmental services, the incentive for protecting national parks may exceed the carbon value used in result-based payment scheme in REDD+ initiatives that have been implemented.

Community Governance tensions of rural drinking water utilities in periurban territories (Chile)

Unlike the private concession model applied in urban zones, rural water sanitation services in Chile are managed by rural drinking water (RDW) committees or cooperatives, under a community governance model. This article seeks to understand the tensions and conflicts faced by RDW community governance in the peri-urban territories of regional capitals, which are at the frontier of the private drinking water management model. Based on a political ecology and hybrid governance approach, this research proposes the hypothesis that, on facing urban expansion and water scarcity, the neoliberal institutional framework tends to favour drinking water market governance in peri-urban territories. With this aim, and through semi-structured interviews and participatory observation, focusing on three RDW cases located in the peri-urban zone of Talca, this study develops a critical discourse analysis of community managers and government regulators, identifying their perceptions and positions on current socio-ecological transformations, and community governance tensions. Consistent with the proposed hypothesis, from discourse analysis, it is possible to infer the potential risks of privatization, derived from the implementation of Law No. 20,998, which regulates rural water sanitation services.

An uncertainty-based smart market model for groundwater management

Abstract This paper presents a new water market mechanism, which can be used for selecting the best trading policy by incorporating the uncertainties of total annual available water and wholesale price of agricultural products. In this mechanism, water users are asked to submit bid packages via a web-based platform. A bid package represents the real values that a user puts on different quantities of withdrawn groundwater considering its quality. Then, the most reliable water trading policy as well as the price of water are calculated by taking the market endogenous and exogenous uncertainties into account using the regret theory. The results show that by applying the proposed uncertainty-based smart groundwater market mechanisms to the Nough Plain in Iran, the average productivity of water users increases about 18% compared to the status quo condition. Furthermore, based on the outputs of the proposed market model, groundwater is finally distributed to agricultural users almost proportional to their farm's area.

Assessing tradeoffs in the design of climate change adaptation strategies for water utilities in Chile

Climate change is a challenge to drinking water providers worldwide and to regulatory frameworks that consider long-term investment decisions. Coping with an unstable climate warrants adjustments in regulations and new investments. The investment required to maintain a selected service level needs to balance the potential for high regret stranded assets with the political and socioeconomic consequences of not meeting water demands. In recent years, the City of Santiago in Chile has seen drought events associated with climate change, which could worsen in the future. Chile's drinking water regulatory framework does not account for uncertainty in infrastructure design to cope with the potential impacts of such events. This work presents an adaptation option design process that considers multiple plausible climate change-impacted future scenarios, accommodating both structural and nonstructural measures. In our Santiago case study adaptation measures include extensions to the existing Chilean water market and traditional structural alternatives (e.g., storage infrastructure); all are represented in a simulation model of the water utility. We evaluate and optimize packages of efficient adaptation measures for various climate scenarios. This allows comparing different portfolios of combined institutional and infrastructure interventions via a range of stakeholder measures and comparing their tradeoffs under different plausible climate-impacted hydrological scenarios. Results showed that water supply performance without climate change adaptation is worse under climate scenarios with lower water availability, which are likely to be associated with higher GHG emission scenarios such as RCP 8.5. The optimized portfolios implement various combinations of adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of this poor performance. Considering the uncertainty on future climate scenarios, the use of nonstructural adaptation measures such as option contracts exhibits the advantage of providing water in critical periods while avoiding large investments such as building reservoirs or the purchase of permanent water rights, which could end up underused if favorable climate scenarios manifest.

Investigation on the Development Status and Consumption Demand of China's Bottled Water Market Based on the Consumption Market of Youth Groups in Anhui Province

With the development of economy and society and the improvement of people's living standards, people have higher and higher requirements for drinking water quality. Therefore, the bottled water market has great development space in the future, but it is also accompanied by many prominent problems such as many manufacturers and fierce competition. In order to understand the young people's cognition and purchase preference of bottled water in Anhui Province, the research group used online questionnaires, expert interviews, field research and other methods to explore the development status, consumption needs and main problems of the bottled water industry. Firstly, we conduct descriptive statistical analysis on the survey data to understand the distribution of samples, and use contingency analysis and decision tree analysis to analyze the purchase preference of youth bottled water in Anhui Province. Secondly, from the four aspects of price, advertising, publicity and sales, AHP is used to explore the influencing factors of young people's purchase of bottled water. Thirdly, the structural equation model is used to explore the transmission mechanism of each influencing factor of bottled water purchase. Finally, from the dimensions of purchase habits, purchase scenes and purchase needs, this paper uses cluster analysis to describe the purchase behavior of five types of youth in Anhui Province.

Sold Down the River: How Robber Barons and Wall Street Traders Cornered Australia’s Water Market, by ScottHamilton and StuartKells, Text Publishing Co, Melbourne, Australia, 2021, 334 pp, ISBN: 9781922458124.

Sold Down the River: How Robber Barons and Wall Street Traders Cornered Australia’s Water Market, by ScottHamilton and StuartKells, Text Publishing Co, Melbourne, Australia, 2021, 334 pp, ISBN: 9781922458124.

Improving water markets in Spain: Lesson-drawing from the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia

The transfer of successful water market governance between international settings is increasingly attractive to policy makers under globalization. This paper tests lesson-drawing approaches to water market governance transfers using data from Spain and the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Spain is the blueprint country for water market adoption in Europe, while Australia is often presented as a world leader in innovative water market arrangements. A preliminary comparative analysis framework linking water market governance principles to observed institutional arrangements and outcomes is provided. Finally, some key lessons, problems and policy transfer potential to stimulate and enhance Spanish water markets from lesson-drawing approaches are drawn, with an emphasis on adaptive capacity as an institutional performance metric. We find that Spain’s current water governance institutions and arrangements offer a solid platform for marketing reform, where some key adaptive capacity constraints are able to be addressed. The lessons drawn from this study highlight those areas of change which, while challenging, can be achieved in our view.

ІНФОРМАЦІЙНЕ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ СИСТЕМИ МАРКЕТИНГОВИХ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ РИНКУ МІНЕРАЛЬНОЇ ВОДИ

It has been demonstrated that in the conditions of overcoming the consequences of corona crisis an important issue is the organization of business processes, which, as of the time of the study, is carried out on a mixed form. It is substantiated that enterprises should assess their capabilities and be ready to make quick business decisions in the case of reintroduction of quarantine for enterprises. It is substantiated that the organization of marketing research of commodity markets and timely provision of managers of structural units with reliable information is important for the effective conduct of business by domestic enterprises on a mixed form. In the study the sequence of information support for marketing research of the mineral water market has been developed. The dynamics of incomes and the level of demand of mineral water consumers during the period of corona crisis has been determined. As a result of the research it was concluded that the mineral water market, unlike other sectors of the economy, has favorable prospects for further development. A portrait of a mineral water consumer and his level of satisfaction with the quality of mineral water, pricing and assortment policy on the domestic market have been determined. This study will determine consumer preferences for the choice of mineral water and take into account its results by domestic production and trade enterprises. Other enterprises will be able to develop a similar sequence of information support for marketing research of the commodity market in which they carry out their business activities.

The bottled drinking water market in China: features of sustainable development

This article briefly presents the results of a market research study of the bottled drinking water market in China. The purpose of this study is to describe the overall situation in the Chinese bottled drinking water market, identify sustainable growth and expansion trends, as well as potential opportunities for export of Baikal drinking water through the introduction of domestic (regional) business to the Chinese market. The results of the study can be used to guide foreign business activities in the bottled drinking market and to make effective management decisions.

Critical infrastructure of the housing sector of the national economy: Economic and legal aspect

The purpose of the study is to summarize the current state of the art in the economic and legal aspects of ensuring the functioning of critical infrastructure in the housing sector of the national economy and to substantiate proposals for its improvement. The study used general and special research methods: synergistic approach, trend statistical analysis method, economic-mathematical modelling using Statgraphics XV&I Centurion program, logical method and generalization method. The main results of the study include. It has been concluded that housing and public utilities infrastructure is the largest consumer of resources in the world economy, so its operation and development require further research. The authors have defined the tendencies for increasing the volumes of construction works on the territory of Ukraine for the period of 2016-2020 and slow rate for increasing the construction of housing stock. With the help of economic and mathematical modeling, the authors have obtained results of the forecast of the volume of commissioning of the total area of residential buildings in Ukraine. Based on the analysis of the dynamics of emergencies in residential buildings or constructions in Ukraine for the period of 2015-2020, the authors have made a conclusion on the need to implement measures on preventing emergencies. Critical infrastructure facilities within the residential sector of the national economy include both enterprises in the field of water supply, sewerage, production, transportation and marketing of heat and electricity, gas distribution and transportation and water heating and gas supply networks in residential buildings, as well as elevators and networks that provide communication.

Targeting economic and environmental benefits associated with the integration of regeneration units in water systems

Water treatment is traditionally seen as an "end-of-pipe" solution to deal with contaminated water satisfying discharge regulations at a minimum expense. However, the reuse of treated water as regenerated water is a promising strategy to counteract water scarcity. This approach to transform waste into resources is motivated by the circular economy paradigm. This study presents a mathematical programming approach to target both the environmental and economic benefits of water systems by introducing additional regeneration units to close the loop. In addition to water users and authorities, the approach also considers operators and dealers, which are revealed as key stakeholders. Hence, the feasible region of the regeneration units design specifications is determined and visualized through a multi-objective optimization approach targeting the systems operating cost and freshwater consumption. Its application is demonstrated on a benchmark case study from the literature, revealing a potential economic benefit of 37.5% and a freshwater reduction of 80.9% over the case without regeneration units. Furthermore, we show that a cooperative exchange strategy leads to higher benefits compared to the solutions presented in the literature. Finally, we demonstrate how the barrier plots introduced in this work can be used by different stakeholders in the water market to support their decision-making.

Comparison of mineral content of bottled spring and mineral waters marketed in Turkey

Drinking water is the most indispensable substance for humans. Bottled drinking waters are preferred over tap water with the belief that they are more nutritious, better quality, more delicious and safe in terms of health. Therefore, the Turkish bottled (spring and mineral) water market has experienced a continuous growth since 2003, as in the whole world. This study focuses on comparing the common mineral cation calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and sodium (Na+) content of twenty one popular bottled spring and mineral water brands marketed in Turkey by using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The average concentrations of Ca, Mg and Na analyzed in bottled spring and mineral water samples were found as 14.9, 24.1 and 8.2 mg/L and 147.9, 44.3 and 117.3 mg/L, respectively. This comparison confirms that bottled natural mineral water has better quality in terms of major nutrient minerals than bottled natural spring waters.

Agent-based modeling of participants' behaviors in an inter-sectoral groundwater market

While being affected by economic and hydrological conditions, the behaviors of water market participants can also be caused by their psychological characteristics and social stimuli of the environment. This paper employs agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to simulate a local groundwater market in central Iran. The proposed ABM framework couples social, economic, and hydrological sub-models. The social sub-model benefits from the theory of planned behavior under field studies to design psychology-based behaviors of trading agents. Moreover, in continuous interaction with the FlowLogo hydrological sub-model, the economic sub-model simulates the inter-sectoral water trading under a double-auction mechanism. The inter-sectoral trading includes selling the farms' irrigation water to the industry sector. The calibration and validation results for an eight-year simulation period (2010–2018) confirm the acceptable performance of the proposed ABM framework. Water trading patterns experience relatively extreme variations in the first years. However, with the adaption of the agents' bids to the market conditions, they gradually emerge in a more stable form in the last years. Furthermore, updating the psychological factors increases the agents' intention of participating in the market, and thus, the competition level over time. Finally, the hydro-economic analysis reveals that implementing the dynamic cap-and-trade policy increases the total net benefits of market participants by an average of 27% per year while reducing the region's groundwater drawdown by 56 cm. Such inter-sectoral water markets can help with the sustainable exploitation of groundwater resources.