106152 20210902121803.0 doi 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106608 sideral 118095 ART-2020-118095 eng Tapia, Javier Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-9454-7896 Economic valuation of the natural service of nitrate regulation provided by rivers including dilution effects: Application to a semiarid region, the Ebro basin (Spain) 2020 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted Nitrogen pollution is one of the main problems affecting the environment and human activity. This is especially true in semiarid regions where the quantity-quality relationship is a key constraining factor. In this paper, we propose and apply a method to quantify the economic value of the environmental service a river provides as a nitrate purifier/diluent. The main aim is to provide water management decisions with a solid and easily replicable method. Specifically, this study proposes a method to assess two processes of the water quality regulation service, namely, nitrate removal and dilution, through avoided decontamination costs. The proposed method is applied in the Ebro river basin as a role model. This application allows us to define the concepts in an operational manner. Since water availability forecasts are a key factor, we explore and analyze our results in accordance with several climate-change scenarios. The results show that the economic value of the removal service at the watershed scale amounts to about €92.3 million per year. Estimates of the annual economic value of the dilution service in the whole basin range more largely from €21.8 to €111.7 million, depending on the climate change scenario considered. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the dilution and removal services provided by rivers are jointly assessed. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/INIA/RTA2017-00082-00-00 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/ECO2016-75927-R info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EUR/SUDOE/INTERREG/AGUAMOD-SOE1-P5-F0026 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by-nc-nd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ 4.958 2020 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 72 / 273 = 0.264 2020 Q2 T1 1.314 2020 Decision Sciences (miscellaneous) 2020 Q1 Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics 2020 Q1 Ecology 2020 Q1 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion Bielsa, Jorge Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-4028-2965 Martínez Martínez, Yolanda Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-3552-1810 Sauvage, Sabine Cakir, Roxelane Raimonet, Mélanie Gerino, Magali Sánchez-Pérez, José Miguel 4000 415 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Análisis Económico Área Fund. Análisis Económico 117 (2020), 106608 1-11 Ecol. Indic. Ecological Indicators 1470-160X 620050 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/106152/files/texto_completo.pdf Postprint 2213050 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/106152/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Postprint oai:zaguan.unizar.es:106152 articulos driver 2021-09-02-09:56:21 ARTICLE