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Security-differentiated Water Pricing as a Mechanism for Mitigating Drought Impacts. Insights from a Case Study in the Mediterranean Basin

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Abstract

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource due to growing multi-sector demand and the effects of climate change. During droughts, the proportional rule is the most widespread water allocation method applied in irrigation systems. However, this method fails to guarantee efficient water allocation or to provide a fair method of water allocation. This paper aims to verify whether by replacing the water allocation methods based on a proportional rule with methods based on a priority rule could improve the allocation of water resources and minimize the negative economic impacts of water shortages. The ultimate objective of this research is to design a water pricing scheme capable of guaranteeing efficient water reallocation during drought conditions. Therefore, an experiment was carried out for the largest irrigated area in southern Italy, covered by the Capitanata Reclamation and Irrigation board (CBC). A positive mathematical programming model was implemented in order to simulate the effects of the proposed mechanism. The findings show that priority mechanisms have the potential to improve overall economic efficiency in the event of water shortages. However, results also point to the need for optimal design of a differentiated water pricing scheme.

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The dataset generating during and/or analyzed are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was the result of an inclusive international collaboration among University of Naples (Italy), Bari (Italy) and Cordoba (Spain). We would like to thank professor Guido D’Urso from University of Naples Federico II for allowing the precious networking.

Author Contributions

LM: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. CG-M: Investigation, Methodology, Data Management, review. GG: Conceptualization, Visualization, Data Collection, Supervision, review.

Funding

Survey of farmers was carried out within the project “Economia delle risorse irrigue in Puglia”, CUPB37G17000030007, funded by the Regional Government of Apulia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055, Naples, Italy

    Laura Mirra

  2. WEARE reserach Group, Universidad de Cordoba, Campus Rabanales, 14701, Cordoba, Spain

    Carlos Gutiérrez-Martín

  3. Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Giacomo Giannoccaro

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  1. Laura Mirra
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  2. Carlos Gutiérrez-Martín
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Correspondence to Laura Mirra, Carlos Gutiérrez-Martín or Giacomo Giannoccaro.

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Mirra, L., Gutiérrez-Martín, C. & Giannoccaro, G. Security-differentiated Water Pricing as a Mechanism for Mitigating Drought Impacts. Insights from a Case Study in the Mediterranean Basin. Environmental Management 73, 683–696 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-023-01886-x

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