Narrow Results

The World Health Organization has labeled the problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater in South Asia as “the largest mass poisoning in human history.” Various technical solutions to the problem fall into one of two broad categories: (i) cleaning contaminated water before human consumption and (ii) encouraging people to switch to less contaminated water sources. In this paper, we review research on the behavioral, social, political, and economic factors that determine the field-level effectiveness of the suite of technical solutions and the complexities that arise when scaling such solutions to reach large numbers of people. We highlight the conceptual links between arsenic-mitigation policy interventions and other development projects in Bangladesh and elsewhere, as analyzed by development economists, that can shed light on the key social and behavioral mechanisms at play. We conclude by identifying the most promising policy interventions to counter the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh. We support a national well-testing program combined with interventions that address the key market failures (affordability, coordination failures, and elite and political capture of public funds) that currently prevent more deep-well construction in Bangladesh.

For community water providers, safeguarding source waters from contamination offers an additional barrier of protection and a potential means of avoiding in-plant treatment costs. Whether source water protection efforts are cost-effective relative to in-plant treatment requires hydrologic, geologic, and climatologic knowledge of source watersheds, as well as an understanding of how changes in source water quality affect treatment costs. Quantitative evidence on the latter relationship is limited. This study estimates separate hedonic cost functions for water systems that primarily use surface water sources and those that primarily use groundwater sources using a database of United States (US) Community Water Systems. Cost functions relate annual variable treatment cost to production, factor input prices, capital stock, and source water quality, as proxied by land use within various ex-ante defined contributing areas (i.e., surrounding land areas affecting source water quality). For surface water systems, a 1% increase in urban land relative to forestland is correlated with a 0.13% increase in annual variable treatment costs. In this analysis, the relationship between costs and agricultural land is not statistically significant. Conversely, for groundwater systems, a 1% increase in agricultural land relative to forestland is correlated with a 0.24% increase in costs, whereas in this analysis the relationship between costs and urban land is not statistically significant. The cost-effectiveness of forestland preservation, based on sample means, varies considerably with the size of the contributing area, with no clear indication as to whether preservation is more likely to be cost-effective for surface water or groundwater systems.

In this study, a novel aquatic eutrophication model was presented by coupling the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC) and three-dimensional eutrophication models (CE-QUAL-ICM). The meteorological factors (wind speed, evaporation and radiation) and emergent plant factors (spatial distribution, density, height and diameter) were substantially accounted for in the model to reflect the effects of adsorption and degradation of pollutants by emergent plant and the changes of bottom stress and flow field. The proposed model was used to simulate the inter-annual and seasonal changes of water quality in Wuliangsuhai Lake which is a shallow eutrophication lake surrounded by the emergent plant in Inner Mongolia, China during 2004–2009. The simulated concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a and chemical oxygen demand with consideration of the presence of emergent plants were satisfactorily agreement with the measured ones. The simulation results indicate that it is very important to reduce the pollutant load into the lake, which can directly change the concentration of the water quality in the lake area. The information of water quality in shallow and dense emergent plants covered aquatic area where in-site observation is unavailable could be obtained from the model. Therefore, it appears that the developed model is an effective approach to simulate water quality of shallow grass-algae lakes, and can be used as a useful water environmental planning and management tool in these regions.

Coastal waters in and around Puerto Galera Bay, Mindoro, Philippines, is drastically contaminated generally due to poorly constructed sanitation and household facilities and runoff from the hillsides associated with the tourism development. In this study, a field survey on tidal currents and water quality in and around Puerto Galera Bay was conducted with hydrodynamic numerical simulations of tidal currents, in which a nesting technique was employed for properly incorporating the effects of complicated tidal fluctuation outside the bay. The results reveal the existence of a highly asymmetrical pattern of tidal flow fluctuation having strong tidal residual flow and the vulnerability of the flow field to water quality deterioration within the semi-enclosed innermost bay area. The highly asymmetrical tidal flow fluctuation is attributed to the asymmetrical generation of detached eddying motion around Puerto Galera as a highly nonlinear phenomenon producing strong tidal residual currents. These results are useful in understanding the physical conditions of the bay, which are needed for consideration in the local government's coastal management plan.

A conceptual model to assess the literacy level of water consumers is presented. On the one hand, a literature search was performed using the ScienceDirect and B-On platforms, conjoining the terms literacy, awareness, water, water for human consumption, drinking water, environmental, disease prevention and public health, resulting in seven papers with the mingle of literacy and water and five on literacy and the environment being uncovered. On the other hand, the lack of papers and information on the subject caused us to consider developing a conceptual model to transform the processes of planning and operationalization of the studies of literacy of water consumers. The model can support the development and validation of measurement tools capable of apprehending different dimensions in the context of water literacy. A questionnaire was conceived and applied to a cohort of 147 respondents in order to assess water literacy. In addition, the articulation of the proposed model and Deming’s PDCA model was demonstrated in order to achieve excellence through the evaluation of the current reality to promote improvement solutions.

The Limfjord is the largest Danish estuary and is connected to both the North Sea in the west and the Kattegat in the east. The connection to the North Sea was formed in 1825 by a storm surge, and has since been kept open partly artificially. The debate about the climate changes and thereby the increased risk of flooding in the estuary has revitalized the discussion whether this connection should be closed. In this paper, it is shown by numerical simulation that the establishment of a storm surge barrier across Thyborøn Channel can significantly reduce the peak water levels in the central of the fjord. The reduction is obtained by blocking the ingoing flow with a sluice in due time before the storm surge peaks in the North Sea. In order to avoid problems with reduced water quality and salinity, the water exchange should be controlled by only keeping the sluice open for ingoing currents for the rest of days during the year. Depending on the effective cross-sectional area of the sluice, the depth-averaged salinity in the Limfjord remains status quo for cross-sectional areas of 500 m², whereas the salinity increases with up to 1.5 PSU for larger openings.

This study was carried out to design an incentive payment for an ecosystem services (IPES) scheme in the Baitadi Town Water Supply and Sanitation Project of Nepal. The main intention behind the designing of the scheme was to develop strategy for equitable use of water resources and involve communities, watershed and water user, in the sustainable management of water resources. We administered household survey in both the watershed community and water users to elicit their preferences regarding water source management and drinking water supply. A discrete choice experiment was employed in the case of water users which showed that, for them, water quality and quantity are the most important attributes. The estimated annual willingness-to-pay of water users for doubling water availability is NPR 482,076 (USD 4,505) and for doubling the water quantity and the supply of clean water that can be drunk directly from the tap is NPR 1.18 million (USD 10,988). The results of consultations with stakeholders indicate that the construction of public toilets, the regularization of grazing, off-season vegetable farming and drinking water distribution in the upstream area may contribute to maintaining the quality of water while keeping the watershed community satisfied with regard to water-sharing. These activities require NPR 1.17 million (USD 10,987) in the first year and NPR 425,640 (USD 3,978) annually from the second year on. The estimated willingness-to-pay and cost of the watershed activities indicate that implementing IPES in the Baitadi Town Water Supply Project is financially feasible and socially acceptable. Our study recommends the integration of the IPES design into the project design phase in future drinking water scheme, the best option being its integration into the initial environmental examination at the time of project design.

The Kura–Araks Basin is facing problems with insufficient water availability for all needs and poor water quality, which results in high rates of waterborne diseases. The riparians of the basin struggle with management of water resources within their national borders, as well as internationally, across the basin. With international rivers, interdependency among countries is created, where the upstream country can impact the quantity and quality of water downstream. This study focuses on the upstream–downstream relationship with the Kura River between Azerbaijan and Georgia. The analysis uses a game theoretical framework, which incorporates several issues in the negotiation space. Specifically, water quantity and water quality are analyzed separately and combined into an aggregated isolated game. The analysis compares the aggregated isolated game, where the outcome of each game is negotiated separately, with an interconnected game, where the two games are jointly negotiated. Using realistic parameters, results show that due to the repeated nature of some of the payoffs, cooperation is unlikely to be achievable in each game independently, since at least one country has an incentive to deviate. In contrast, the interconnected game can achieve full cooperation and increase the welfare of both countries.

Environmental economists have long been interested in the relationship between policy enforcement, technological progress, and economic growth. A multidirectional process exists where factors such as the economy, policy, technology, and environment interactively work. Based on the balanced panel data of 261 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2020, this study innovatively examines the diversified channels in the policy–technology system within the structural equation modeling framework. Conclusions can be drawn as follows. First, the policy uncertainties curb the technological improvement in the water sector, particularly in southern Chinese cities. Second, the incubation and adoption of water technology are closely intertwined, significantly affecting water quality. By clarifying the interaction of the factors in water technology diffusion, this study provides a comprehensive framework to investigate China’s water economics and policy uncertainties.

In this study, we measure the effect of restoration actions on the economic value of coastal communities. We use a residential sorting model to simulate residential moves between communities and then estimate the value of restoring shoreline uses in coastal communities. Our application measures the effect of cleaning up Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC) — which are heavily polluted coastal locations prioritized for restoration in the United States and Canada — on the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents in the U.S. state of Michigan. While prior research documents the effect of individual AOCs on residents, particularly in local housing markets, little research has examined systematically where restoration is occurring and whether it affects mobility at a regional level. The results in this paper suggest that restoration actions can affect mobility, with point estimates indicating households are willing to pay $54/year for the uses restored between 2005 and 2015 in Michigan’s AOCs.

Although agricultural production contributed about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2019, existing agricultural practices are capable of making the sector carbon neutral. Whether American agriculture will ultimately achieve carbon neutrality is ultimately a question of political will, not a scientific one. Given the right policy environment, farms and ranches will be able to cut their emissions and use their land to sequester carbon, while becoming more climate resilient, productive, and profitable…