Allocation trade in Australia: a qualitative understanding of irrigator motives and behaviour*

Governments in Australia are purchasing water entitlements to secure water for environmental benefit, but entitlements generate an allocation profile that does not correspond fully to environmental flow requirements. Therefore, how environmental managers will operate to deliver small and medium‐sized inundation environmental flows remains uncertain. To assist environmental managers with the supply of inundation flows at variable times, it has been suggested that allocation trade be incorporated into efforts aimed at securing water. This paper provides some qualitative and quantitative perspective on what influences southern Murray–Darling Basin irrigators to trade allocation water at specific times across and within seasons using a market transaction framework. The results suggest that while irrigators now have access to greater risk‐management options, environmental managers should consider the possible impact of institutional change before intervening in traditional market activity. The findings may help improve the design of intervention strategies to minimise possible market intervention impacts and strategic behaviour.     

An economic assessment of options for operating within plantation forestry water entitlements and tightening cap and trade policy

The Green Triangle (GT) region of southern Australia is one of only two jurisdictions globally to licence plantation forestry's groundwater use. In response to declines in groundwater resources caused by historical plantation expansion, reductions in forest water allocations (~50%) are likely for some parts of the region, presenting novel challenges for forest managers in maintaining revenues and timber flows. This article presents a mathematical programming model evaluation of water trade opportunities for plantation forest owners to adapt to reduced water entitlements and explores how tightening groundwater policy could affect forestry returns and land use mix for the region. Results suggest that even absent opportunity to sell water, relatively limited 11% reduction in return could be expected for a large (−50%) water entitlement and (−48%) land-use change out of forestry. Results suggest that opportunities for forestry companies to sell water entitlements may allow them to maintain or even increase combined returns from forestry and water sales. Whilst the results highlight the adaptive capacity of the plantation forestry sector to operate within reduced water entitlement, a significant sectoral and regional economy adjustment would be likely. The discussion focusses on the potential to realise optimisation model-identified adaptation opportunities accounting for real-world thin markets, transaction costs and market friction.     

TRANSFERABLE WATER ENTITLEMENTS WHICH SATISFY HETEROGENEOUS RISK PREFERENCES

Irrigators in Victoria have a water entitlement which is composed of a highly secure water right and additional water which may be purchased if available. Water entitlements in NSW are based on the irrigated area with the actual volume of water received in any year depending almost entirely on seasonal conditions. Musgrave and Lesueur (1973) argued that these entitlements could be replaced by a portfolio of entitlements, with each type of entitlement in the portfolio guaranteeing a nominated minimum value of water at a different probability. Thus, irrigators could purchase a portfolio of water entitlements which would suit their individual risk preferences. The purpose in this paper is to show how a water authority can construct a portfolio of water entitlements which satisfies these requirements and also to demonstrate that the entitlements in the portfolio satisfy a first degree stochastic dominance relationship. A worked example is presented in which these results are illustrated.     

Capturing benefits from water entitlement trade in salinity affected areas: A role for trading houses?

While there is potential for substantial benefits from water entitlement trade, external effects such as salinity may mean that traders cannot capture these benefits. This paper demonstrates that by creating a trading house as a single seller of water entitlements, with trade profits distributed to buyers, it is possible to achieve an allocation of entitlements which gives a social outcome higher than that possible from atomistic competition for entitlements. Such an outcome may be comparable to an optimally set uniform charge for water entitlements, but the trading house mechanism has the advantage that it makes use of trade to generate information on the optimal level of charging in the presence of salinity.     

Water policy reform in Australia: lessons from the Victorian seasonal water market*

The nature of the seasonal water market is examined using a theoretical model and empirical evidence from the Victorian market. Drivers of the seasonal opportunity cost of water include the underlying nature of investment in the industry made in the context of risky entitlement yields; and the timing and nature of information regarding seasonal water availability and rainfall. Seasonal water markets facilitate the re‐allocation of water availability according to this short‐run opportunity cost. Evidence from the market suggests that transactions costs are low and most of the existing constraints to trade in seasonal allocations are the result of hydrological conditions. Analysis of market data suggests that the price response of the market to water availability is much more pronounced in years of low rainfall. The implications of the paper for wider policy reform are that attention should be paid to improving property rights for the management of intertemporal risk before other reforms, such as broadening of permanent water markets and institutionalising environmental flows, are implemented. This is because these other reforms will change the spatial and temporal pattern of water use and thus affect reliability, which underpins the value of water in irrigated agriculture.     

Water rights for variable supplies*

The relative merits of different systems of property rights to allocate water among different extractive uses are evaluated for the case where variability of supply is important. Three systems of property rights are considered. In the first, variable supply is dealt with through the use of water entitlements defined as shares of the total quantity available. In the second, there are two types of water entitlements, one for water with a high security of supply and the other a lower security right for the residual supply. The third is a system of entitlements specified as state‐contingent claims. With zero transaction costs, all systems are efficient. In the realistic situation where transaction costs matter, the system based on state‐contingent claims is globally optimal, and the system with high‐security and lower security entitlements is preferable to the system with share entitlements.     

Economic drought management index to evaluate water institutions’ performance under uncertainty*

Reservoir management and intertemporal water allocation are critical issues in semiarid regions where agriculture has to confront highly variable rainfall patterns. In this paper, we derive and propose an economic drought management index (EDMI) to evaluate water institutions’ performance to cope with drought risk. The EDMI is based on the optimal conditions of a stochastic dynamic optimisation problem that characterises reservoir management. The index's main advantages are its ease of interpretation and breadth of scope, as it incorporates information on hydrological processes, structural constraints, water institutions’ rules, and the economic benefits of water use. An empirical application is developed to assess the institutional rules governing water allocation in two different supply systems in Andalusia (southern Spain).     

Economic cost of environmental flows in an unregulated river system*

This paper applies a stochastic dynamic programming framework, incorporating links to hydrological and biophysical models, to assess the economic costs of environmental flows in an unregulated river system in the Namoi Valley of northern New South Wales, Australia. Structural adjustment decisions are included in the model to account for farmer responses to changes in environmental flows through the introduction of a water sharing plan. The results of the analysis indicate that the proposed level of environmental flows reduces water extractions by around 6 per cent, and imposes an opportunity cost of less than 1 per cent in terms of reduced net income over a 20-year period.     

Does anybody like water restrictions? Some observations in Australian urban communities*

Mandatory water restrictions continue to be the immediate response to urban water shortages in most major cities in southern Australia. Whilst generally rejected by economists on efficiency grounds, restrictions and the enforcement regimes used to invoke them are, nonetheless, viewed by some in the community as a positive way of dealing with water scarcity. Given the likelihood that urban water restrictions will persist for some time, there is value in understanding householders’ attitudes in this context. The impact and acceptability of differing approaches to enforcement is of particular interest, because this has wider ramifications for the administration of policy generally. This paper uses the results from a choice experiment to investigate the interplay between different components of a water restriction regime. In stark contrast to prevailing views that focus on the community benefits from ‘sharing the pain of water shortages’, results point to the significance of being able to inform on ones neighbours as a component of the enforcement regimes.     

流域水环境综合治理PPP项目风险的次优分配与致因探析

流域水环境综合治理PPP项目是我国开展水环境治理工作的重要抓手,此类项目投资大、系统性强,因此政府方与社会资本方对风险的合理分担尤为重要。针对流域水环境综合治理PPP项目在公共部门和社会资本方之间的风险分配问题,利用文献统计识别此类项目的共担风险因素,通过专家问卷调查分析风险分担现状,基于博弈论思想探讨次优分配的致因机制,并提出相关建议。研究结果表明:目前流域水环境综合治理PPP实践中存在风险次优分配现象,政府方承担的风险比例偏低;费用支付和项目需求程度两项风险最为重要但风险分配却极不合理;双方谈判地位与风险承担能力不匹配导致次优分配,政府方与社会资本方之间同时存在利益冲突与合作关系,而信息不对称加剧了双方在利益冲突下的非合作博弈。提出了优化费用支付和项目需求程度的风险分担结构及明确风险传导机制的建议。     

PROPERTY ENTITLEMENTS AND PRICING POLICIES FOR A MATURING WATER ECONOMY

The Australian water economy is entering a mature phase characterised by inelastic supply of 'new' water and the need for expensive rehabilitation of aging projects. Thus, the policy focus will turn increasingly toward ways of restraining water demand and reallocating existing supplies. A prima facie case is made that the efficiency loss from current water pricing and allocation policy is significant. After considering the relevant welfare economics theory, the theory of administered prices and marketable property rights and some American proposals for reform, a system of transferable water entitlements is proposed and developed.     

Upstream demand for water use by new tree plantations imposes externalities on downstream irrigated agriculture and wetlands*

Large‐scale tree plantations in high rainfall upstream areas can reduce fresh water inflows to river systems, thereby imposing external costs on downstream irrigation, stock and domestic water users and wetland interests. We take the novel approach of expressing all benefits and costs of establishing plantations in terms of $ per gigalitre (GL) of water removed annually from river flows, setting upstream demands on the same basis as downstream demands. For the Macquarie Valley, a New South Wales sub‐catchment of Australia’s Murray‐Darling Basin, we project changes in land and water use and changes in economic surpluses under two policy settings: without and with a policy requiring permanent water entitlements to be purchased from downstream parties, before plantation establishment. Without the policy, and given a high stumpage value for trees ($70/m³), upstream gains in economic surplus projected from expanding plantations are $639 million; balanced against $233 million in economic losses by downstream irrigators and stock and domestic water users for a net gain of $406 million, but 345 GL lower mean annual environmental flows. With the policy, smaller gains in upstream economic surplus from trees ($192 million), added to net downstream gains ($138 million) from sale of water, result in gains of $330 million with no reduction in environmental flows. Sustaining the 345 GL flow for a $76 million (406–330) reduction in gains to economic surplus may be seen to cost only $0.22 million/GL; but this is much lower than the market value of the first units of that water to agriculture and forestry.     

完善黄河水价形成机制 促进黄河水资源高效配置

简述黄河流域水价演变过程，分析目前黄河水价存在的主要问题，提出从建立适合社会主义市场经济要求的水价体系、建立水价的补偿调节机制以及完善水费征收和管理政策三方面来进一步完善黄河水价的形成机制，促进黄河水资源的合理流动和高效配置。     

The role of the commonwealth environmental water holder in annual water allocation markets

In recent years, the Government of Australia has bought back a significant amount of water entitlements in the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB) through its Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) agency. This has been a welcome development, as it is an efficient way of securing water for the environment in the basin. However, the question of how to best manage water holdings held by the government is as yet unresolved. In particular, the question of whether and how should the CEWH engage in water markets is still grappling the government and academia alike. This paper addresses that question by evaluating total benefits to a range of water users, including the environment, under a variety of hydro‐climatic conditions. This is approached through running simulations based on environmental benefit function that varies with prevailing hydro‐climatic conditions. The findings indicate that the benefits are greater when CEWH actively participates in annual water allocation market and that such participation enables the CEWH to secure most water when it is needed the most by the environment. This suggests that policy should encourage the CEWH to further explore opportunities to engage with the water markets to the benefit of communities and the environment in the MDB.     

基于用水户满意度准则的流域水资源合理配置研究

我国的流域水资源配置主要从流域管理者角度出发,追求流域整体利益最大化,由于忽视了流域内各用水户的个体利益和协商意愿,导致流域内部分用水户对水资源配置方案的满意度较低,方案可行性较差。因此,将用水户对配置方案的满意程度定义为用水户满意度,并将其量化为最低满意度函数和协调满意度函数,为用水户参与水资源配置方案决策提供通道。最终,建立基于用水户满意度准则的流域水资源合理配置模型,并以黑河流域为例进行实例验证。结果表明:①基于用水户满意度准则的流域水资源合理配置模型能够满足水资源配置的公平性。②流域内各分区对水资源配置方案的协调满意度与各自的水资源配置权重成正比。③当最低满意度取值较高时,流域水资源管理机构在制定配水方案时更强调配水的公平性;反之,则更强调用水效率,易出现部分区域缺水情况,影响流域水资源配置的公平性,应避免该情况出现。     

Missing markets for storage and the potential economic cost of expanding the spatial scope of water trade

A great deal of attention has been given in recent years to the question of externalities associated with water entitlements and how third parties can be protected without restricting opportunities for water trade. Yet one market failure that has received no attention at all is the missing market for storage that arises from the specification of water entitlements, particularly in Victoria where historically all storage decisions were made at the centralised level and where any additional carryover was treated as common property. The economic significance of the missing market for storage is demonstrated using an empirical model that represents the spatial‐temporal pattern of irrigation water demand in the Goulburn Valley and decisions regarding inter‐year storage of water in Lake Eildon. It is shown that, because irrigators have no incentive to trade‐off the benefit of current use (or sale) with the value of water storage, there is an erosion of reliability when opportunities for trade are broadened. The empirical results demonstrate that the loss in economic value associated with reduced reliability are as large as the gains from trade, so there is no net benefit from trade.     

Forest governance and economic values of forest ecosystem services in Vietnam

Forest ecosystems deliver valuable services to humanity. However, many forests are being degraded and their services have been undervalued. The main problem lies in the inadequate institutional arrangements for forest governance. This paper aims to assess the effects of alternative forest governance arrangements on the provision and economic values of forest ecosystem services (FES) in Vietnam. The study presents a framework for mapping land use and land cover (LULC) change stemming from actual and hypothetical changes in forest governance regimes, quantifies the resulting changes in the provision of FES, and estimates the associated economic values. In the context of the study site in the North Western uplands of Vietnam, we test three alternative forest governance scenarios: business as usual, with a dominant government role; a community-based governance regime; and a private, individual-based forestry governance regime. Scenarios are based quite closely on the way these regimes are (or might be expected to be) implemented in Vietnam. For each forest governance scenario, we map LULC changes based on land suitability analysis and transition likelihood for the period 2010 − 2020. The resulting maps are used as inputs into the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) model, which is used to estimate the quantity of three specific FES: carbon storage/sequestration, sediment yield, and water yield. We apply economic valuation methods to value these services: the social cost of carbon is used to estimate the economic values of carbon storage/sequestration; the cost of removing sediment deposited in reservoirs is applied for valuing the reduction of sediment yield, and the residual value of water supply for hydropower generation is used for valuing water yield. The results show that forest governance regimes have a significant effect not only on forest LULC, but also on the quantity and values of FES derived from forests. The FES are differentially affected by alternative forest governance regimes: some FES increase in quantity and value under some governance regimes and decrease under others. Of the three forest governance regimes examined, there is no one regime that will always be ‘better’ than the others in terms of provisioning all considered FES. For the specific context of Vietnam, we find that the private forest governance scenario is inferior to the community-based governance scenario, as an alternative to the current state-based governance. Because our results pertain to the scenarios as constructed, rather than generally to broad categories of governance regimes, there remains the possibility that regimes can be constructed that outperform all of those examined here.     

灌溉用水权确权到户有关问题的思考

灌溉用水权确权到户是水资源资产管理的重点与难点,涉及数亿农户的权益,有关工作仍处于早期探索阶段。在大量调研的基础上,对该不该、能不能确权到户,管理能否到位等关键问题进行了探讨。研究认为:从国家发展战略、政策导向、技术流程、供水管理等多个视角考虑,灌溉用水权应当尽快确权到户,技术上完全可行,服务管理可以基本得到保障。建议将灌溉用水权确权到户作为新时代深化水利改革的重要内容,与农业水价综合改革、规范取水许可等工作有机结合,积极稳妥有序推进。     

Urban water demand with fixed volumetric charging in a large municipality: the case of Brisbane,Australia*

This paper uses suburb‐level quarterly data to model residential water demand in Brisbane, Australia, from 1998 to 2003. In this system, residential consumption is charged using a fixed annual service fee with no water entitlement followed by a fixed volumetric charge per kilolitre. Water demand is specified as average quarterly household water consumption and the demand characteristics include the marginal price of water, household income and size, and the number of rainy and warm days. The findings not only confirm residential water as price and income inelastic, but also that the price and income elasticity of demand in owner‐occupied households is higher than in rented households. The results also show that weather, particularly summer months and the number of rainy days, exerts a strong influence on residential water consumption.     

农业水土资源耦合研究进展与展望

目的 寻找农业水土资源耦合研究热点、梳理研究发展历程、统筹和归纳研究体系,明晰未来研究发展方向和突破点,助力农业水土资源可持续利用。方法 文章通过定性与定量研究相结合,借助CiteSpace软件对1992—2022年农业水土资源耦合研究热点、发展历程进行初步分析,之后借助文献归纳法进一步综述研究体系。结果 研究聚焦于农业水土资源利用效率及效用,总体上经历了从土壤理化性质到水土资源优化配置、从小尺度作物种植到大尺度流域治理的发展历程,研究体系由3个研究基本面和6个研究基本点构成,研究基本面分别为水土资源匹配格局、水土资源利用过程、水土资源状态响应,即“格局—过程—响应”的农业水土资源耦合研究体系。结论 水土资源匹配格局方面需进一步明晰水土资源空间分异特征并加强二者物理交互过程和时空变异规律的研究,建议未来聚焦于识别水土资源配置差别并建立实践性的匹配等别标准;水土资源利用过程方面土地利用变化后水文过程响应研究尚待补充,建议未来可深入探索土地利用与水文过程的二元互馈机理;水土资源状态响应方面气候变化下需注意从气象指标入手探究农业生产中水土资源的关系,建议未来加强气候变化背景下低效利用问题的动态监测及预测模拟。