In an effort to strengthen the link between economics and water policy, in August 2012 the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) hosted the International Water Resource Economics Consortium (IWREC) 10th Annual meeting during the World Water Week in Stockholm. This special issue presents a selection of the papers presented at this meeting, which all illustrate some of the key challenges in applying economics to water resources management, requiring to credibly value both market and non-market costs and benefits, to estimate marginal costs of achieving differing levels of water quantity and quality, to model choices, including risks and uncertainties, and to relate to other disciplines so that there is mutual understanding as to the data and input–output relationships.

Explore all the papers of the Special Issue in the online directory of the journal.

The complexity of water resources systems can often be addressed by applying decision support systems (DSS) and models, which can transparently present the elements of the system and their interrelationships. A DSS for IWRM will typically include a database and processing environment, a knowledge and information system, a modelling and analysis framework, a socioeconomic modelling and analysis framework, and a communication framework.

There are many IWRM areas where models and DSSs can inform the process by allowing water managers to better characterise multiple factors and future uncertainties. This Technical Focus Paper provides for guidelines for elaborating and validating modelling/DSS tools to assist decision-makers in implementing IWRM.

Download the paper here.

Project Info

• Project Team: Anton Earle, John Joyce, Josh Weinberg
• Partners: Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection Foreign Economic Cooperation Office (MEP-FECO), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Wuhan University
• Co-finanaced by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection Foreign Economic Cooperation Office and Sida
• Timeline: November 2012 – December 2013

With its vision for a “water wise world”, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) recently produced its 2013-2017 strategy, placing its various programmes and activities within five thematic areas: Climate Change; Transboundary Water Management; Water Governance; Water, Energy and Food Nexus; and Water Economics. In this article, we highlight why we work with these themes and the key services we provide under each theme.

Article in Stockholm Water Front, issue no 2, 2012

Paper, published 2012.

Demographic changes cannot be separated from climate changes. In his reflections on some of the fundamental issues related to climate change, SIWI’s Mats Eriksson draws some arguments related to an increased focus on adaptation versus mitigation.

Erosion and sedimentation in China is assessed by Zhou Zhide and Tong Yuling, from the International Research and Training Centre on Erosion and Sedimentation, Beijing, China. They look into how natural pollution affects water quality globally, and the human equation in the process.

SIWI’s John Joyce reflects upon the effects of the international financial crisis on financial flows for the water sector in Africa, based upon a recently published SIWI report. The two main conclusions being that: (a) local governments and households (who are not well integrated in the international economy and therefore not heavily effected by the crisis) play a crucial role in financing water sector related infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa, (b) Chinese Arab investments may have played a stabilising role in Sub-Saharan Africa during the recent financial crisis. Therefore, the effects have not been as severe as what could have been expected.

And Mr. John Feighery, PhD candidate at Columbia University and winner of the Best Poster award during the 2010 World Water Week in Stockholm wrote for this issue of the Stockholm Water Front about his research on water quality in Bangladesh which won him this honour.

The Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP) Programme will address this need by developing:

1. a partnership among organisations;
2. a methodology to assessment and track results for each of the five categories of transboundary water systems (transboundary groundwater; transboundary lakes/reservoirs; transboundary river basins; Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs); and open ocean areas) under the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme; and
3. conduct a baseline transboundary waters assessment that may be conducted following completion of the MSP.

The periodic assessment will be sustained in the future through the partnership of agencies and organisations, and include data series collected by Global Environment Facility International Waters (GEF-IW) projects that would be useful to those agencies and to UNEP’s GEO process.

Project Info

• Project team: Anders Jägerskog, Anton Earle, John Joyce, Kyungmee Kim
• Partners: UNEP-DEWA in partnership with UNESCO-IOC, UNESCO-IHP, UCC-Water, SIWI, IGRAC, Finland, BMZ/BGR, ETH-Zurich, IUCN, ILEC, GRID-Arendal, LOICZ, GESAMP, Linnaeus University, University of Western Cape