Although fresh water is abundant at a global level, only a tiny amount, less than 0.3 %, is easily accessible for human use (Dinar et al., 2007). An increasing amount of this water is utilized, with global water withdrawals tripling since 1950. Presently, 70 % of the world’s population lives...

The paper provides an integrated framework to assess water markets in terms of their institutional underpinnings and the three ‘pillars’ of integrated water resource management: economic efficiency, equity and environmental sustainability. This framework can be used: (1) to benchmark...

Survey data from 10 OECD countries are used to model household water demand. Statistically significant results include: (1) an inelastic average price response is estimated for every country; (2) households not charged volumetrically consume more water than households that are; (3) household...

The paper reviews current water reforms and initiatives in the Murray-Darling Bain from an economic perspective. It argues that while the principles (National Water Initiative) and rules (Water Act 2007) of water reform provide the framework to achieve the goals of reform, the financial...

Many urban communities are considering infrastructure investments to augment their water supply in response to actual or expected shortages due to weather variability and, in some cases, due to climate change. To address short-term imbalances between supply and demand, water utilities frequently...

A key issue facing water planners and policy makers is the cost of reallocating water from extractive uses, such as irrigated agriculture, to environmental flows. To quantify these costs, a framework to analyze the economic trade-offs from water use reductions in irrigated agriculture is...

A key challenge in managing semi-arid Basins, such as in the Murray-Darling in Australia, is to balance the trade-offs between the net benefits of allocating water for irrigated agriculture, and other uses, versus the costs of reduced surface flows for the environment. Typically, water planners...