Abstract:
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By ignoring the opportunity cost of water use, water is undervalued, which can lead to significant errors in investments and water
allocation decisions. The marginal resource opportunity cost (MROC) varies in time and ...[+]
By ignoring the opportunity cost of water use, water is undervalued, which can lead to significant errors in investments and water
allocation decisions. The marginal resource opportunity cost (MROC) varies in time and space, as resource availability, demands, and users’
WTP vary. This spatial and temporal variability can only be captured by basinwide hydro-economic models integrating water demands and
environmental requirements, resources, infrastructure, and operational and institutional restrictions. This paper presents a method for the
simulation of water pricing policies linked to water availability, and the design of efficient pricing policies that incorporate the basinwide
marginal value of water. Two approaches were applied: priority-based simulation and economic optimization. The improvement in economic
efficiency was assessed by comparing the results from simulation of the current system operation and the pricing schedule. The difference
between the benefits for the simulated current management and the upper bound benefits from optimization indicates the maximum gap that
could be bridged with pricing. In the application to a synthetic case, a storage-dependent step pricing schedule derived from average MROC
values led to benefits that capture 80% of the gap of net benefits between management without pricing and the economically optimal management.
Different pricing policies were tested, depending not only on reservoir storage but also on previous inflows. The results show that
the method is useful for designing pricing policies that enhance the economic benefits, leading to more efficient resource allocations over time
and across the competing uses.
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Thanks:
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This study has been partially funded by the EU 6th FP project AQUAMONEY (SSPI-022723), the 7th FP GENESIS project (226536), and SAWARES (Plan Nacional I+D+i 2008-2011, CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and C02-02) and SCARCE ...[+]
This study has been partially funded by the EU 6th FP project AQUAMONEY (SSPI-022723), the 7th FP GENESIS project (226536), and SAWARES (Plan Nacional I+D+i 2008-2011, CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and C02-02) and SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
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