Ecosystem shifts: implications for groundwater management

Esteban, E. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Calvo, E. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Albiac, J. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Freshwater ecosystems provide a large number of benefits to society. However, extensive human activities threat the viability of these ecosystems, their habitats, and their dynamics and interactions. One of the main risks facing these systems is the overexploitation of groundwater resources that hinders the survival of several freshwater habitats. In this paper, we study optimal groundwater paths when considering freshwater ecosystems. We contribute to existing groundwater literature by including the possibility of regime shifts in freshwater ecosystems into a groundwater management problem. The health of the freshwater habitat, which depends on the groundwater level, presents a switch in its status that occurs when a critical water level (‘tipping point’) is reached. Our results highlight important differences in optimal extraction paths and optimal groundwater levels compared with traditional models. The outcomes suggest that optimal groundwater withdrawals are non-linear and depend on the critical threshold and the ecosystem’s health function. Our results show that the inclusion of regime shifts in water management calls for a reformulation of water policies to incorporate the structure of ecosystems and their interactions with the habitat.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1007/s10640-021-00569-7

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Environmental and Resource Economics 79, 3 (2021), 483-510
ISSN: 0924-6460

Factor impacto JCR: 4.955 (2021)

Categ. JCR: ECONOMICS rank: 54 / 382 = 0.141 (2021) - Q1 - T1
Categ. JCR: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES rank: 34 / 128 = 0.266 (2021) - Q2 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 5.7 - Economics, Econometrics and Finance (Q1) - Environmental Science (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.416 - Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law (Q1) - Economics and Econometrics (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/INIA/RTA2017-00082-00-00
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/UZ/JIUZ-2019-SOC-07

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Fund. Análisis Económico (Dpto. Análisis Económico)