Analysis Of Water Pollution With Input-output Models

The objective of this paper is to carry out an in-depth study of the structural relationships between economic and environmental variables with reference to the water resource in the Ebro Valley, using concepts and tools derived from input-output analysis. Thus, we obtain the key productive sectors in terms of water consumption and pollution, the linkage effects of these sectors, the elasticities and the relationship of water pollution with the economic variables of added and employment (trade-offs). We determine the pollution-generating subsystems and refine the traditional indicators of water pollution. This supposes an advance, in that it enable us to modify the traditional Table in such a way that it adopts a more appropriate approach to the economic-environmental relationships. The empirical application is made with respect to the economies of Aragon, Navarre, La Rioja and Lerida-Tarragona, as well as to the aggregation of all four in the form of the Ebro Valley. We provide a description of the intersectorial productive relationships and their impact over water, as well as a comparison between economic behaviour in relation to water use in the different areas of the Valley.