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THE EBRO BASIN

Forthcoming research issues

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April 27^th, 2021

GROUP MEETING

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Encarna Esteban (Associate Profesor, University of Zaragoza)

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Presentation Outline

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1. The Ebro basin – characteristics and main issues (Encarna Esteban)
2. Hydroeconomic Modeling: a general view (José Albiac)
3. Hydroeconomic modeling: the role of ecosystems in water management in the Ebro (Daniel Crespo)
4. Hydroeconomic Modeling: quality and quantity issues in the Ebro basin and policy simulations (Safa Baccour)
5. Forthcoming research developments: political issues and ecosystems’ valuation (Encarna Esteban)

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The analysis of political economy …

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Current water allocations are conditioned by the interactions between water stakeholders

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The capacity of interest groups to push water authorities can cause a distortion of water allocations and a loss of economic efficiency

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Low application/development of political economy

analysis applied to water resources

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Interest group perceptions on water reforms: Insight from a water stressed basin. 2018.

E. Esteban, A. Dinar, J. Albiac, A. Calera, M. García-Molla and L. Avellá.

Water Policy 20(4): 794-810.

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Determinants of water lobbying: irrigators' behavior in a water-stressed basin. 2019.

E. Esteban, A. Dinar and J. Albiac. Water Policy 21(5): 1107-1122.

Using a political economy model to analyze water resources …

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Objective

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How water allocations are conditioned by political pressures (lobbying action)

Social welfare and system inefficiencies

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Work steps

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• Step 1: Survey elaboration
• Step 2: Data Collection
• Step 3: Water policy analysis

The implementation in the Ebro Basin

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• Interest groups:
• sub-basins,
• irrigation districts,
• urban consumers,
• hydroelectric companies,
• ecosystems

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• Efficient water allocations vs. real water allocations – This is a very relevant issue specially in a context of climate change

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• Social impacts (economic value) of not efficient water assignments

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A Ricardian Approach to assess climate change

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1. In a seminal paper, Mendelsohn (1994) introduced the Ricardian approach to estimate the impacts of climate change.
2. The idea behind this method is to regress land values depending on selected variables of climate, soils, economic conditions, and social conditions
3. Ricardian models allow to measure economic losses, such as reduction in net income or the value of land, due to environmental factors
4. In general, most Ricardian models are based on cross-sectional data and implemented to countries.

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Mendelsohn, R. (2014). The impact of climate change on agriculture in Asia. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 13(4), 660-665.

The implementation in the Ebro Basin

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Objective

To estimate how political interactions modify climate change valuation

(Assessing climate change value in the Ebro)

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Work steps

• We propose the implementation of a Ricardian model in the Ebro Basin (regional Ricardian model)
• We have divided the Ebro Basin based on municipalities (1700 municipalities)
• The major contribution of the analysis is the inclusion of political variables (beloging to Water Users Association / Size of the Water Users Association)
• Other possible political variables: Survey

The analysis of ecosystems …

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One of the main challenges with ecosystem, in order to include them in water management strategies, is the lack of proper economic valuations for most of the ecosystem services (ESs) they provide.

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Our objective is to identify the most important ecosystem services in the Ebro basin

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Meta-Analysis and/or other valuation studies to

assess a proper value of selected ESs

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