Spulber / Sabbaghi Economics of Water Resources: From Regulation to Privatization

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-94-015-8321-3
Verlag: Springer Netherland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 329 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Natural Resource Management and Policy

The purpose of this book is to develop a general economic model which integrates the quantity and quality issues of water resource management and to provide, along with a detailed criticism of the policy instruments now in use, alternative proposals concerning the efficient allocation and distribution of water. In particular we treat water as a multi-product commodity where the market plays a major role in determining water quality-discriminant pricing and its value to the user. We examine the process of moving from administrative allocation and regulation to privatization of the water industry as the key element in promoting effective competition and in providing economic incentives for greater efficiency. Water quantity and quality, considered independently of each other, have been the subject of numerous studies during the last twenty years. Let us recall briefly the most outstanding among them. A variety of models have been constructed concerning the optimal scheduling and sequence of water-supply projects: dynamic programming for solving multi-bjective functions in water resource development; planning models for coordinating regional water-resource supply and demand, etc. Other studies have devised water-quality management models, including multi-period design of regional or municipal wastewater systems; cost-allocation methods to induce effluent dischargers to participate in regional water systems; models to predict the quality of effluent (in particular, whether it meets certain established standards); models for finding optimal waste-removal policies at each of the polluting sources, and so on.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Spulber, Nicolas

Sabbaghi, Asghar

Inhaltsverzeichnis

One: The Analytical Framework.- 1 Components of Water Resource Management.- 2 Types and Quantities of Water Demand.- 3 Types and Quantities of Water Supply.- 4 Market Processes for Resource Allocation.- Two: Interaction of Water Quantity and Quality.- 5 Nature of Pollutions and Their Specific Impact.- 6 Interactions in the Economic-Ecological System.- 7 Recycling and Reusing Water.- Three: Instruments in Water Resource Management.- 8 Drawbacks of Administrative Controls.- 9 Privatizing Water Supply and Distribution.- 10 Quality-Discriminant Pricing of Water Services.- 11 Water Basin Models.- Four: Summary and Conclusions.- 12 Long-run Policy Implications in Water Resource Management.- References.- Appendices.