Agriculture and economics in the Water Framework Directive: progress and limitations

Agriculture is having an increasing impact on water resources in Spain, both from a quantitative (consumption) and qualitative (pollution) perspective. Therefore, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) will have a great impact on this sector. In fact, new river management plans aim to reduce these pressures through the implementation of programmes of measures. These instruments will impose new requirements (costs) on farming systems and may promote the adoption of more efficient and sustainable production methods. Within this context this paper aims to analyse how this new water management plan is being developed. An economic analysis is carried out to select a programme of measures involving irrigated agriculture.

[1]  F. Lozano.  El regadío en España , 1984 .

[2]  Consuelo Varela-Ortega,et al.  Water pricing policies, public decision making and farmers' response: implications for water policy , 1998 .

[3]  J. Martínez-Alier,et al.  Weak Comparability of Values as a Foundation for Ecological Economics , 1998 .

[4]  Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Remote sensing for irrigated agriculture: examples from research and possible applications , 2000 .

[5]  José A. Gómez-Limón,et al.  The impact of water-pricing policy in Spain: an analysis of three irrigated areas , 2000 .

[6]  B. Görlach,et al.  Making the Right Choice - a Methodology for Selecting Cost-Effective Measures for the Water Framework Directive , 2004 .

[7]  A. Garrido,et al.  Spot water markets and risk in water supply , 2005 .

[8]  Phoebe Koundouri,et al.  Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: a survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application. , 2006, The Science of the total environment.

[9]  José A. Gómez-Limón,et al.  Multi-criteria policy scenario analysis for public regulation of irrigated agriculture , 2006 .

[10]  D. Kay,et al.  Analysing the Agricultural Costs and Non‐market Benefits of Implementing the Water Framework Directive , 2006 .

[11]  Nick Hanley,et al.  Estimating the economic value of improvements in river ecology using choice experiments: an application to the water framework directive. , 2006, Journal of environmental management.

[12]  DMA y agricultura. Cuestiones económicas, ambientales, sociales y territoriales , 2007 .

[13]  M. Bouzit,et al.  Integrating water balance and cost-eectiveness analysis for water management: An application in Jordan and Lebanon , 2008 .

[14]  Julia Martín-Ortega,et al.  Beneficios y costes ambientales en la Directiva Marco del Agua: conceptos y estimación , 2008 .

[15]  Francesc Hernández-Sancho,et al.  The social benefits of restoring water quality in the context of the Water Framework Directive: A comparison of willingness to pay and willingness to accept. , 2009, The Science of the total environment.

[16]  J. Unturbe,et al.  Financiación de servicios de agua y la aplicación de excepciones al principio de recuperación de costes , 2009 .

[17]  Roy Brouwer,et al.  Valoración económica de los beneficios ambientales de no mercado derivados de la mejora de la calidad del agua: una estimación en aplicación de la Directiva Marco del Agua al Guadalquivir , 2011 .

[18]  S. Castaño,et al.  Methodology for Quantifying Groundwater Abstractions for Agriculture via Remote Sensing and GIS , 2010 .

[19]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Conceptualising uncertainty in environmental decision-making: The example of the EU water framework directive , 2010 .

[20]  J. Martin-Ortega,et al.  A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Water-Saving Measures for the Water Framework Directive: the Case of the Guadalquivir River Basin in Southern Spain , 2011 .