José Albiac

Universidad de Zaragoza

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Taher Kahil

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Encarna Esteban

Universidad de Zaragoza

Elena Calvo

Universidad de Zaragoza

Ariel Dinar

University of California, Riverside

Safa Baccour

Universitat Politècnica de València

Daniel Crespo

University of California, Riverside

Maryna Strokal

Wageningen University & Research

Andrés Sahuquillo

Universitat Politècnica de València

Yoshihide Wada

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Frank A. Ward

New Mexico State University

Cooperative Institutions

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Universidad de Zaragoza

Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón

Wageningen University & Research

University of California, Riverside

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España

Universitat Politècnica de València

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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Tradeoffs between Water Uses and Environmental Flows: A Hydroeconomic Analysis in the Ebro Basin

Water Resources Management (2019)

Daniel Crespo José Albiac Taher Kahil Encarna Esteban Safa Baccour

Environmental water uses and their social values have been mostly overlooked in traditional water management over the last few decades, and recently, the maintenance of environmental flows has been considered a key issue in water policies. Addressing the more sustainable management of water resources involves introducing new water allocation policies. However, these policies are often associated with tradeoffs across sectors, stakeholders, and spatial locations. This study aims to evaluate the tradeoffs and political economy aspects of allocating water among economic water uses and environmental flows in water-scarce river basins. An empirical analysis has been conducted in the Ebro River basin (Spain) as a case study, where an intense debate on the environmental flow allocation of the Ebro mouth is taking place. The study uses a hydroeconomic model that includes the major water uses in the Ebro to analyze the effects of different water allocation policies under combinations of water availability and environmental flow scenarios. The results of this study highlight the importance of assessing the opportunity costs and political implications of reallocating water from economic activities to the environment under impending climate change impacts. Moreover, the results indicate that well-functioning water allocation policies should be not only economically efficient but also socially acceptable to reduce the likelihood of failure of water reallocation to the environment.

Water use

10.1007/s11269-019-02254-3

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Citations (39)

Economic and Environmental Policy Analysis of the Flumen‐Monegros Irrigation System in Huesca, Spain

Geographical Analysis (2000)

María Luisa Feijóo Bello Elena Calvo José Albiac

This article describes a behavioral model of the Flumen‐Monegros irrigation area (Spain) and presents the results from the model simulation under various policy scenarios. The model combines agronomic, economic and policy information in a framework built using linear programming and crop growth simulation techniques. An important feature of the model is the classification of crop acreage in various types of soils which have different productive potential. The objective function maximizes net margins of crops and includes direct payments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The crop activities covered in the model are the main crops cultivated in the area (fallow, wheat, barley, corn, sunflower, alfalfa, rice, other crops, and CAP set‐aside). To validate the model, the results on cropland utilization obtained from the model have been compared with actual cropland utilization, concluding that the model closely approximates the actual data. The model is used to characterize the behavior of the irrigation area under three scenarios which reflect likely changes in agricultural and environmental policies: removal of direct payments, increase in water prices, and reduction of fertilizer use. The results show the large impact of these three scenarios on farmers' production decisions: the elimination of direct payment reduces net margin almost by half; prices corresponding to full recovery of water costs reduce significantly the cultivated acreage; and the reduction in fertilizer use causes a fall of 23 percent in net margins.

Gross margin

Direct Payments

Net farm income

Agricultural policy

10.1111/j.1538-4632.2000.tb00424.x

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Citations (20)

Cooperative water management and ecosystem protection under scarcity and drought in arid and semiarid regions

Water Resources and Economics (2015)

Taher Kahil Ariel Dinar José Albiac

Scarcity

10.1016/j.wre.2015.10.001

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Citations (75)

Cost-effective management of coastal eutrophication: A case study for the Yangtze river basin

Resources Conservation and Recycling (2019)

Maryna Strokal Taher Kahil Yoshihide Wada José Albiac Zhaohai Bai

Many water resources are threatened with nutrient pollution worldwide. This holds for rivers exporting increasing amounts of nutrients from the intensification of food production systems and further urbanization. This riverine nutrient transport causes coastal eutrophication. This study aims to identify cost-effective management options to simultaneously reach environmental targets for river export of nitrogen and phosphorus by the Yangtze River (China) in 2050. A newly developed modelling approach is used that integrates the Model to Assess River Inputs of Nutrients to seAs (MARINA) with a cost-optimization procedure, and accounts for socio-economic developments, land use and climate changes in a spatially explicit way. The environmental targets for river export of nutrients aim to reduce the gap between baseline and desirable nutrient export. Our baseline is based on MARINA projections for future river export of nutrients, while the desirable nutrient export reflects a low eutrophication potential. Results show the possibilities to close the gap in river export of both nutrients by 80–90% at a cost of 1–3 billion $ per year in 2050. Recycling of animal waste on cropland is an important cost-effective option; reducing synthetic fertilizer inputs provides an opportunity to compensate for the additional costs of the recycling and treatment of manure and wastewater. Our study provides new insights on the combination of cost-effective management options for sub-basins of the Yangtze. This can support the design of cost-effective and sub-basin specific management options for reducing future water pollution.

Nutrient pollution

Nutrient Management

Baseline (sea)

10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104635

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Citations (55)

Nitrate pollution control under soil heterogeneity

Land Use Policy (2005)

Yolanda Martínez José Albiac

Water Framework Directive

Nutrient pollution

10.1016/j.landusepol.2005.05.002

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Citations (55)

Instruments for Water Quantity and Quality Management in the Agriculture of Aragon

International Journal of Water Resources Development (2007)

José Albiac Enrique Playán Jubillar Yolanda Martínez

The traditional policy of developing new irrigated areas in Aragon has been changed to irrigation modernization through investments in distribution networks and on-farm irrigation equipment. This new policy creates opportunities to introduce more profitable crops, conserve irrigation water and abate agricultural nonpoint pollution. Several alternatives open to irrigated agriculture are bioethanol and biodiesel technologies (which could provide a support price for grains), the expansion of profitable fruits and vegetables under drip irrigation, and the diversification of water using activities (animal farming, industries, residential areas and sport utilities). Alternative measures to abate agricultural nonpoint pollution are examined in this paper. Modernizing irrigation structures leads to a large reduction of pollution, and introduces reasonable costs to farmers (in terms of their rent). Results also show that water pricing—advocated by the European Water Framework Directive—is a wrong policy in irrigation, because irrigation demand does not respond to prices and also because water pricing is not cost efficient to abate pollution.

Water pricing

Irrigation district

Water Framework Directive

10.1080/07900620601159685

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Citations (18)

Sustainability of intensive groundwater development: experience in Spain

Sustainable Water Resources Management (2017)

Emílio Custódio Andrés Sahuquillo José Albiac

Intensive aquifer development is common in arid and semiarid countries. The associated economic and social benefits are great, but management is needed and sustainability has to be analysed in the framework of a sound hydrogeological background which includes recharge as a key term. Recharge under natural conditions may greatly differ from the actual value under groundwater exploitation conditions when the aquifer is connected to surface water bodies or evaporation conditions are modified. Actual recharge is not an aquifer property but is variable depending on groundwater abstraction and its pattern, and changes in surface water-groundwater relationships and other circumstances, such as return irrigation flows, leakages, and activities to artificially modify it. Groundwater plays an important role in nature as it sustains spring flow, river base flow, wetlands, and crypto-wetlands, and the related provision of ecological services to mankind. Therefore, developable groundwater resources and their sustainability have to take into account concurrence and the net benefits of capturing it in a given moment and not in other circumstances, and exchanging groundwater-related nature services for the human use of groundwater. The often large storage relative to annual flow of aquifers implies that aquifer development produces effects that may last decades and even affect upcoming human generations. This new dimension, which has economic and sustainability aspects, is not as important for other water resources. Critical flow thresholds have to be considered for groundwater-dependent ecosystems. This is considered from the point of view of water quantity, which is the dominant aspect under arid and semiarid conditions. However, water quality may be as or more important for humans and for nature services, but this needs a separate treatment. The hydrogeological and socio-economic aspects of aquifer behaviour are presented taking into account the experience drawn from some intensively exploited and economically and socially important aquifers, mostly those in La Mancha, in central Spain, but also other intensively exploited Spanish aquifers. Top-down–down administrative decisions to get a given sustainable have resulted in partial failures, but if action is agreed among stakeholders better outcomes could be achieved. Mixed solutions seem the best approach.

Depression-focused recharge

Water balance

10.1007/s40899-017-0105-8

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Citations (28)

Hydroeconomic modeling for assessing water scarcity and agricultural pollution abatement policies in the Ebro River Basin, Spain

Journal of Cleaner Production (2021)

Safa Baccour José Albiac Taher Kahil Encarna Esteban Daniel Crespo

Water scarcity and water quality degradation are major problems in many basins across the world, especially in arid and semiarid regions. The severe pressures on basins are the consequence of the intensification of food production systems and the unrelenting growth of population and income. Agriculture is a major factor in the depletion and degradation of water resources, and contributes to the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Our study analyzes water allocation and agricultural pollution into watercourses and the atmosphere, with the purpose of identifying cost-effective policies for sustainable water management in the Ebro River Basin (Spain). The study develops an hydroeconomic model that integrates hydrological, economic and water quality aspects, capturing the main spatial and sectoral interactions in the basin. The model is used to analyze water scarcity and agricultural pollution under normal and droughts conditions, providing information for evaluating mitigation and adaptation policies. Results indicate that drought events increase nitrate concentration by up to 63% and decrease water availability by 42% at the mouth of Ebro River, highlighting the tradeoffs between water quantity and quality. All mitigation and adaptation policies reduce the effects of climate change, improving water quality and reducing GHGs' emissions, thus lowering environmental damages and enhancing social well-being. Manure fertilization and optimizing the use of synthetic fertilizers are important cost-effective policies increasing social benefits in a range between 50 and 160 million Euros. Results show that irrigation modernization increases the efficient use of nitrogen and water, augmenting social benefits by up to 90 million Euros, and enlarging stream flows at the river mouth. In contrast, manure treatment plants reduce private and social benefits even though they achieve the lowest nitrate concentrations. Our study provides insights on the synergies and tradeoffs between environmental and economic objectives. Another finding is that drought conditions decrease the effectiveness of policies, and increase the tradeoffs between water availability and nitrate pollution. The results contribute to the discussion of designing cost-effective policies for the abatement of agricultural polluting emissions into water and the atmosphere.

Scarcity

10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129459

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Citations (31)

Water quality management could halve future water scarcity cost-effectively in the Pearl River Basin

Nature Communications (2024)

Safa Baccour Gerwin Goelema Taher Kahil José Albiac Michelle T. H. van Vliet

Abstract Reducing water scarcity requires both mitigation of the increasing water pollution and adaptation to the changing availability and demand of water resources under global change. However, state-of-the-art water scarcity modeling efforts often ignore water quality and associated biogeochemical processes in the design of water scarcity reduction measures. Here, we identify cost-effective options for reducing future water scarcity by accounting for water quantity and quality in the highly water stressed and polluted Pearl River Basin in China under various socio-economic and climatic change scenarios based on the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Our modeling approach integrates a nutrient model (MARINA-Nutrients) with a cost-optimization procedure, considering biogeochemistry and human activities on land in a spatially explicit way. Results indicate that future water scarcity is expected to increase by a factor of four in most parts of the Pearl River Basin by 2050 under the RCP8.5-SSP5 scenario. Results also show that water quality management options could half future water scarcity in a cost-effective way. Our analysis could serve as an example of water scarcity assessment for other highly water stressed and polluted river basins around the world and inform the design of cost-effective measures to reduce water scarcity.

Scarcity

10.1038/s41467-024-49929-z

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Citations (6)

Integrating ecosystem benefits for sustainable water allocation in hydroeconomic modeling

PLoS ONE (2022)

Daniel Crespo José Albiac Ariel Dinar Encarna Esteban Taher Kahil

The increasing concern about the degradation of water-dependent ecosystems calls for considering ecosystems benefits in water management decision-making. Sustainable water management requires adequate economic and biophysical information on water systems supporting both human activities and natural ecosystems. This information is essential for assessing the impact on social welfare of water allocation options. This paper evaluates various alternative water management policies by including the spatial and sectoral interrelationships between the economic and environmental uses of water. A hydroeconomic model is developed to analyze water management policies for adaptation to reduced water availability in the Ebro Basin of Spain. The originality in our contribution is the integration of environmental benefits across the basin, by using endemic biophysical information that relates stream flows and ecosystem status in the Ebro Basin. The results show the enhancement of social welfare that can be achieved by protecting environmental flows, and the tradeoffs between economic and environmental benefits under alternative adaptation strategies. The introduction of water markets is a policy that maximizes the private benefits of economic activities, but disregards environmental benefits. The results show that the current institutional policy where stakeholders cooperate inside the water authority, provides lower private benefits but higher environmental benefits compared to those obtained under water markets, especially under severe droughts. However, the water authority is not allocating enough environmental flows to optimize social welfare. This study informs strategies for protection of environmental flows in the Ebro Basin, which is a compelling decision under the imminent climate change impacts on water availability in coming decades.

Water use

10.1371/journal.pone.0267439

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Citations (22)