The Price of Water

Stephen Merrett

• Publisher: IWA Publishing
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781843391777
• eBook ISBN: 9781780402048
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The Second Edition of the Price of Water expands on the coverage of the first edition and ambitiously develops the theme of the proper management of river basins, both with respect to the control of rivers' water quality and the defence of their quantitative flows from source to sea. Using the hydrosocial balance concept of the first edition, and the grand theory of catchment water deficits, a remarkable breakthrough is made in understanding how river flows are destroyed by human society. Drawing on extensive empirical research into the Kafue River Basin and the Thames River Basin, it is shown that the exhaustion of river flows that we see on a world-wide scale can be explained by just five measurable 'drivers' to basin surplus and basin deficit. Moreover, by specifying the key drivers and measuring their value, the basis is provided for economic, engineering and land management strategies that will reverse river basin destruction. 

Bringing together 20 papers previously published in refereed journals, The Price of Water provides information that many readers would not otherwise have been able to access to through their professional and academic libraries. The scope of the book is broad, dealing with a diverse range of subjects such as regional and catchment planning and integrated water resources management. Topics considered include: both water quantities and qualities drought management the "virtual water" controversy farmers water-rights the economic demand for water the design of abstraction charges the cost and use of irrigation water the design of effluent charges the "willingness-to-pay" methodology catchment water deficits water resource impacts of new property construction water leakage impact on river basins managing water quality within EC directives.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: getting to grips with water
• 2 The regional water balance statement: a new tool for water resources planning
• 3 Integrated water resources management and the hydrosocial balance
• 4 Sharing the benefits of the river basin’s water economy
• 5 Farm-level drought management: an irrigation case-study from the UK
• 6 The potential role for economic instruments in drought management
• 7 ‘Virtual water’ and Occam’s razor
• 8 Virtual water and the Kyoto consensus
• 9 The urban market for farmers’ water-rights
• 10 The demand for water: four interpretations
• 11 The political economy of water abstraction charges
• 12 Twelve theses on the cost and use of irrigation water
• 13 Behavioural studies of the domestic demand for water services in Africa
• 14 Deconstructing households’ willingness-to-pay for water in low-income countries
• 15 Industrial effluent policy: economic instruments and environmental regulation
• 16 Nitrate pollution on the Island of Jersey: managing water quality within European community directives
• 17 Catchment water deficits in the twenty-first century
• 18 Catchment water deficits: an application to Zambia’s Kafue river basin
• 19 The Thames catchment: a River Basin at the tipping point
• 20 Water resource impacts of new housebuilding in the Thames Region: 2006–2025
• 21 Beneficial impacts for the Thames River Basin of water company leakage reduction 2006–2025
• Bibliography
• Index