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Water pricing to achieve conservation in scarce water resources is a major policy challenge. This book provides credible evidence from water pricing experiences in various countries around the world. The book chapters, written by experts in water pricing from various countries, documents the past 10 to 15 years of water pricing experiences in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Spain. The book includes also several chapters that review innovations in water pricing in various countries, such as new reform mechanisms, achieving social objectives via water pricing, achieving revenue recovery, water use efficiency and customer equity, and charging the poor.

Twenty years ago, the European Union launched one of its flagship environmental regulations, the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Since its inception in 2000, the WFD has been a guiding light for water professionals within and beyond the EU; it has pioneered ecological standards for water quality, cycles of river basin management planning, participatory forms of water governance, novel economic instruments, and a recurrent assessment regime. At the same time, the WFD has-by virtue of the far-reaching nature of its interventions-aroused political resistance and encountered bureaucratic lethargy; together with many other factors, these have significantly limited its positive impact on the aquatic environment. This Special Issue looks back over the past 20 years to assess what the WFD has achieved, where it has fallen short of expectations, and why. In this introductory piece, the guest editors set the scene and summarise the key findings of the 12 subsequent papers in terms of 6 processes that are characteristic of the WFD''s trajectory: implementation, indication, incrementation, inspiration, imitation and insubordination.

Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.

This book is an outcome from the International Expo 'Water and Sustainable Development' held in Zaragoza (Spain) in 2008. Support from the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Caja Rioja, Government of Aragon, and the World Bank is acknowledged. 'Few resources will play a more important role in shaping our economic future, or face more daunting challenges, than water. This internationally acclaimed team of experts has produced a first-rate volume that is full of intriguing, practical ideas for meeting those challenges in a rich variety of institutional settings.' Tom Tietenberg, Mitchell Family Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Colby College, USA 'This volume brings together two critical but interrelated dimensions of water challenge, i.e. water pollution, particularly from non-point sources, and water conservation. The editors are well known experts on the subject as are the contributors.' R. Maria Saleth, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka and Associate Editor, Water Policy 'The profound contribution of this volume is that it brings together various economic concepts and policy dilemmas regarding water shortages, non-point source pollution, efficiency of water use and irrigation technology. Recommended reading for anyone working in the area of water management.' Henk Folmer, University of Groningen and Wageningen University, The Netherlands As countries face deteriorating water and environmental quality as well as water shortages, pollution control and the efficiency of water use become of paramount importance. Agriculture is one of the main non-point polluters of water bodies and irrigation for agriculture is one of the main consumers of water. While it is very hard to regulate pollution from agriculture, attempts have been made via economic and command and control instruments, and also through investments in technologies and

[EN] Water scarcity is a critical environmental issue worldwide, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In those regions, climate change projections suggest further reductions in freshwater supplies and increases of the recurrence, longevity and intensity of drought events. At present, one important question for policy debate is the identification of water policies that could address the mounting water scarcity problems. Suitable policies should improve economic efficiency, achieve environmental sustainability, and meet equity needs. This paper develops and applies an integrated hydro-economic model that links hydrological, economic and environmental elements to such issues. The model is used to conduct a direct comparison of water markets, water pricing and institutional cooperation, based on their economic, environmental and equity outcomes. The analysis is performed in the Jucar Basin of Spain, which is a good natural experiment for studying water scarcity and climate change policies. Results indicate that both institutional and water market policies are high performing instruments to limit the economic damage costs of droughts, achieving almost the same social benefits. However, the environmental effects of water markets are worrying. Another important finding is that water pricing is a poor policy option not only in terms of private and environmental benefits but also in terms of equity. Guardar / Salir Siguiente > ; This study was financed by project INIA RTA2010-00109-C04 and INIA RTA2014-00050-00-00 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness partially financed by ERDF funds, and project BIL/13/MA/072 from MAPFRE Foundation. The Ministry supported also a Ph.D scholarship of the first author. Among individuals, special assistance has been provided by Manuel Pulido-Velazquez (UPV), Alfonso Calera and David Sanz (IDR), and Maria Calera (UCL). ; Kahil, MT.; Albiac, J.; Dinar, A.; Calvo, E.; Esteban, E.; Avellá Reus, LF.; García Molla, M. (2016). Improving the Performance ofWater Policies: ...