Abstract
FlowRegEnvCost is an R package developed for evaluating the environmental costs of river flow regulation. The methods for calculating the costs are separated in three steps: (i) measuring the admissible range of variability of regulated river flow based on flow data during the period before the impact, (ii) measuring the environmental impact of regulated flows on a daily basis according to the resulting hydrological change in terms of the magnitude, duration, and frequency of the impact, and (iii) estimating the environmental costs associated to flow regulation subject to spatiotemporal characteristics. The method is based on the “polluter pays” principle, i.e., the estimated cost should be proportional to the resulting impact on the environment. This paper presents FlowRegEnvCost and applies the methodology in the Esla River case study, in Spain. FlowRegEnvCost enlarges the current recognition of the environmental costs and represents an easy-to-use and transparent management tool for accomplishing the goals of the Water Framework Directive.
References
Alonso C, Román A, Bejarano MD, Garcia de Jalon D, Carolli M (2018) A graphical approach to characterize sub-daily flow regimes and evaluate its alterations due to hydropeaking. Sci Total Environ 574:532–543
Babulo BB, Vinten A, Slee B (2011) A review on cost-effectiveness analysis of Agri-environmental measures related to the EU WFD: key issues, methods and applications. Ecol Econ 70:1021–1031
Belmar O, Velasco J, Martínez-Capel F, Peredo-Parada M, Snelder T (2012) Do environmental stream classifications support flow assessments in Mediterranean basins? Water Resour Manag 26:3803–3817
Bithas K (2008) The sustainable residential water use: sustainability, efficiency and social equity. The European experience. Ecol Econ 68(1):221–229
Bunn SE, Arthington AH (2002) Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity. Environ Manag 30(4):492–507
García de Jalón S, González del Tánago M, Alonso C, García de Jalón D (2017) The Environmental Costs of Water Flow Regulation: an Innovative Approach Based on the ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle. Water Resources Management 31(9):2809–2822
García de Jalón S, González del Tánago S, García de Jalón D (2019) A new approach for assessing natural patterns of flow variability and hydrological alterations: The case of the Spanish rivers. Journal of Environmental Management 233:200–210
Godinho F, Costa S, Pinheiro P, Reis F, Pinheiro A (2014) Integrated procedure for environmental flow assessment in rivers. Environ Process 1(2):137–147
Gómez-Martínez G, Pérez-Martín MA, Estrela-Monreal T, Del-Amo P (2018) North Atlantic oscillation as a cause of the hydrological changes in the Mediterranean (Júcar River, Spain). Water Resour Manag 32:2717–2734
Ibarra G, De la Fuente A, Contreras M (2015) Effects of hydropeaking on the hydrodynamics of a stratified reservoir: the Rapel reservoir case study. J Hydraul Res 53(6):760–772
Martín-Ortega J, Giannoccaro G, Berbel J (2011) Environmental and resource costs under water scarcity conditions: an estimation in the context of the European water framework directive. Water Resour Manag 25(6):1615–1633
Nilsson C, Reidy CA, Dynesius M, Revenga C (2005) Fragmentation and flow regulation of the world’s large river systems. Science 308(5720):405–408
Ooms J (2014) Opencpu: the OpenCPU system for embedded scientific computing and reproducible research. R package version 1.4.4
Poff NL, Allan JD, Bain MB, Karr JR, Prestegaard KL, Richter BD, Sparks RE, Stromberg JC (1997) The natural flow regime. BioScience 47(11):769–784
Sahoo BB, Jha R, Singh A, Kumar D (2019) Application of support vector regression for modeling low flow time series. KSCE J Civ Eng 23(2):923–934
WATECO (2003) Common implementation strategy for the Water Framework Directive. Guidance document no 1. Economics and the environment. The implementation challenge of the Water Framework Directive, Working Group 2.6 WATECO, European Communities, Luxembourg
Zhao J, Wang Z, Wang D, Wang D (2009) Evaluation of economic and hydrologic impacts of unified water flow regulation in the Yellow River Basin. Water Resour Manag 23:1387–1401
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Investigation, Methodology, Validation and Writing; Silvestre García de Jalón.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Highlights
• FlowRegEnvCost is an R package for evaluating the environmental costs in rivers
• A methodology to quantify the environmental costs of flow regulation is developed
• The polluter-pays principle is applied proportionally to hydrological alterations
• The flexibility and simplicity of the approach make it a practical management tool
• The Water Framework Directive encourages the full cost recovery of water services
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Jalón, S.G. FlowRegEnvCost: An R Package for Assessing the Environmental Cost of River Flow Regulation. Water Resour Manage 34, 675–684 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-019-02466-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-019-02466-7