Abstract
A growing number of countries are reforming their water allocation
regimes through the use of economic instruments. This article analyzes
the performance of economic instruments in water allocation reforms
compared against their original design objectives in five European
countries: England, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. We
identify the strengths of, barriers to and unintended consequences
of economic instruments in the varying socio-economic, legal,
institutional and biophysical context in each case study area, and
use this evidence to draw out underlying common guidelines and
recommendations. These lessons will help improve the effectiveness
of future reforms while supporting more efficient water resources
allocation.
regimes through the use of economic instruments. This article analyzes
the performance of economic instruments in water allocation reforms
compared against their original design objectives in five European
countries: England, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. We
identify the strengths of, barriers to and unintended consequences
of economic instruments in the varying socio-economic, legal,
institutional and biophysical context in each case study area, and
use this evidence to draw out underlying common guidelines and
recommendations. These lessons will help improve the effectiveness
of future reforms while supporting more efficient water resources
allocation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 206-239 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | International Journal of Water Resources Development |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 19 Jan 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Funding
This work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council under the Historic Droughts Project (NE/L010070/1); AXA Research Fund under the BOOSTER BLUE Project (Economic Instruments For Sustainable Water Management And Resilient Growth In Water Stressed Areas); Climate-KIC Europe through the Climate Smart Agriculture Booster project AGRO ADAPT (Service for Local and Economy Wide Assessment of Adaptation Actions in Agriculture); and the EU 7th Framework Programme through the project Earth2Observe (grant agreement 603608). No new data were collected in the course of this research.
Funders | Funder number |
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Historic Droughts Project | |
Seventh Framework Programme | 603608 |
Natural Environment Research Council | NE/L010070/1 |
AXA Research Fund |
Keywords
- Europe
- Integrated Water Resources Management
- Water allocation
- economic instruments
- water policy