Water Policy Options Research Articles

Application of the ‘theory of planned behavior’ to understand farmers’ intentions to accept water policy options using structural equation modeling

Abstract The agricultural sector is the largest sector of water consumers, and farmers are important stakeholders involved in water conservation. This research has been conducted to determine how native farmers support different policy options to reduce agricultural water consumption. Structural equations modeling was used to construct structures derived from the ‘theory of planned behavior’. For each policy option, a separate model is proposed and the modeling data supports the view that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a positive and significant effect on the intention. Attitudes, and perceived behavioral control, have the strongest effect on intention. Significantly, intention also have a positive impact on farmers' behavior. According to the results of the present research, the variance explained is over 85% for intentions and the variance explained for the farmers' behavior on water policy options is above 45% which is a result that indicates the high ability of the ‘theory of planned behavior’ in predicting policies achievement on saving agricultural water resources. It is argued that the field of psychology, and in particular environmental psychology, can play an important role in understanding more of the drivers to reduce agricultural water consumption and contribute to the social research program for water policy.

Implications of Nontraditional Housing Arrangements for Urban Water Management in the United States Intermountain West

Homeowners living in single-family detached housing have dominated the literature exploring drivers of residential water use. Meanwhile, rentals, multiunit buildings, and residences governed by private associations are an increasingly important component of the American residential landscape. We used data from a large sample of households in northern Utah cities to explore the effects of these nontraditional housing arrangements on water use decision-making, attitudes and behaviors, and their implications for urban water management. After accounting for the sociodemographic characteristics of respondent households, we found that residents of nontraditional housing arrangements are much less likely to have authority over key water use decisions, and differ significantly from residents of traditional housing in regards to water use perceptions and concerns, self-reported water behaviors, and support for various local water policy options. Traditional approaches to urban residential water management should be adapted to renters, residents in multiunit buildings, and members of community associations.

Ethical aspects in the economic modeling of water policy options

Model-based ecological-economic studies on water management can be a valuable source of information for policy decisions on water-related issues; however, disputable normative assumptions may be involved. Deliberately or unintentionally, such assumptions can make these studies policy-prescriptive. Using the conceptual design of a spatially explicit agro-economic model as an example, this article introduces and employs a framework for analyzing normative assumptions in applied economic studies to increase transparency. We argue that the many value-laden issues identified in the studies cannot be – and should not be – avoided. Instead, if used properly and transparently, they can increase the policy-relevance and usability of model-based studies without being policy-prescriptive or “subjective”. This requires analyzing and comparing the practical consequences of alternative policy goals or other value-laden assumptions. Therefore, this article secondly demonstrates, through an example, how researchers can deal more constructively with normative assumptions; our model calculations indicate different consequences of alternative ethical assumptions on how water-intensive agricultural products could be globally distributed. Finally, we argue that applied economic studies can improve their coverage of the ethical aspects of water policy, including (1) social equity, (2) inter-generational justice and (3) ecological sustainability.

Cost–benefit and water resources policy: a survey

This paper reviews recent developments in cost–benefit analysis for water policy researchers who wish to understand the applications of economic principles to inform emerging water policy debates. The cost–benefit framework can provide a comparison of total economic gains and losses resulting from a proposed water policy. Cost–benefit analysis can provide decision-makers with a comparison of the impacts of two or more water policy options using methods that are grounded in time-tested economic principles. Economic efficiency, measured as the difference between added benefits and added costs, can inform water managers and the public of the economic impacts of water programs to address peace, development, health, the environment, climate and poverty. Faced by limited resources, cost–benefit analysis can inform policy choices by summarizing trade-offs involved in designing, applying, or reviewing a wide range of water programs. The data required to conduct a cost–benefit analysis are often poor but the steps needed to carry out that analysis require posing the right questions.

The development of an assessment system to evaluate the ecological status of rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region: introduction to the special feature

Development of an Assessment System to Evaluate the Ecological Status of Rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region (ASSESS-HKH) was a 3-year research project funded by the European Union (Contract number: INCO-CT-2005-003659). This article provides an overview of this research project by summarising the objectives, the approaches and the main achievements. The main objective was to develop and apply a biological assessment system to evaluate the river’s ecological quality and to provide a scientific basis for the identification of sustainable water policy options and management strategies. The assessment tools were jointly developed by European partners, who provided their experience from recent research activities (STAR, AQEM) and Asian partners, who provided the knowledge about Asian river catchments and management necessities. The project was organised into eight work packages defining the time line for all phases, such as establishment of a stream typology and definition of reference conditions and stages of impairment classes for the rivers in the Asian countries, including a review of existing policies for water management. A specific part of the project was dedicated to increasing the overall poor knowledge of benthic invertebrates in the region and their value to the classification of the river’s ecological quality. All activities were accompanied by information events for local residents, universities and water managers. A total of 396 multi-habitat samples, from 115 rivers in five different ecoregions, were taken in two different seasons and accompanied by information on 95 parameters describing river and catchment characteristics. The benthic invertebrates in the samples were taxonomically identified based on keys generated within the project. Taxalists, with abundances per site, and field protocol information were entered into a specifically developed software tool. This dataset was the basis for developing ecological river assessment methods, called HKHscreening (Rapid Field Assessment), HKHbios (HKH Biotic Score) and HKHindex (Multimetric Index). Furthermore, a software tool (ECODAT) for using these methods was developed. The monitoring tools will serve citizens and scientists of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region and will provide a scientific basis for policy recommendations, mitigation strategies, transnational water resource planning and sustainable ecosystem management. Additional outputs, including all sampling and laboratory protocols and project deliverables, together with the freely downloadable software, are available at the following website: http://www.assess-hkh.at.

Analysis of an integrated model for assessing land and water policy options

This paper outlines results of a sensitivity analysis on a model developed to examine water policy and land use change options in the Yass River catchment, NSW. The model has three integrated components consisting of policy, hydrological and agricultural production system models. The sensitivity analysis involved running variables in the model over a broad range of values to examine the response of model outputs. For ease of interpretation, three indicators were used to examine the model output: the number of zero flow days; the median of non-zero flows; agricultural profit. The analysis shows that the model is sensitive to changes in inputs to all component models. But the sensitivity of the model varies depending on whether the input selected has a direct or indirect effect on other system components. Sensitivity analysis of the integrated model illustrates the response of the integrated model when assessing those land and water policy options selected for analysis, and highlights the plausibility of the model results and limitations in applying the model as a decision support tool for policy analysis.

INSIGHT: A framework for determining impacts of changes in land and water policies

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems is constructing a spatially explicit modelling system capable of exploring alternative land and water policy alternatives against plausible price, cost, and climate scenarios for the next 20 years. INSIGHT will be used to identify the likely impacts of land and water policy options on regional economies and structural adjustment. Flowcharts have been constructed for most of the major crop and pasture and associated economic models for commodities produced in the Lachlan River Catchment of New South Wales. This enabled the most important components and interrelationships within these models to be readily identified. The next step has been to construct models at the regional scale that contain the essential elements of the more-detailed point models. The paper describes the progress to date in describing these models, and how they have been integrated into a coordinated agricultural crop production evaluation system.

The non-market value of reclaimed wastewater for use in agriculture: a contingent valuation approach

The reuse of treated water for agricultural irrigation is considered a promising option in regions facing water scarcity problems and there is an increasing number of reuse projects going on in southern European countries. The aim of this paper is to estimate the non-market benefits that society attaches to the use of reclaimed wastewater for agricultural purposes, as part of the economic assessment needed to evaluate the viability of this water management option. For this purpose, a contingent valuation study has been developed in the Segura River Basin in south-eastern Spain, interviewing 352 individuals from a representative sample of the basin’s population. Results show that the use of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation has significant non-market environmental benefits (mean willingness to pay of€5.13 per month per household, which adds up to a total annual value of €23.3 million). In terms of volume, these benefits represent €0.31 m–3. Therefore, it can be concluded that the non-market benefits of using reclaimed wastewater for agriculture justify its implementation, as they overcome the average treatment costs of €0.16-0.26 m–3. Additionally, the analysis of preference heterogeneity suggests that the use of reclaimed wastewater in agriculture is more acceptable to people if they are made aware of their current payment for water sanitation. The inclusion of these non-market benefits in the overall assessment of water policy options will lead to better informed and more efficient water management decisions.