Establishing politically feasible water markets: a multi-criteria approach.
A multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to simulate the establishment of water markets is developed. The environment is an irrigated area governed by a non-profit agency, which is responsible for water production, allocation, and pricing. There is a traditional situation of historical rights, average-cost pricing for water allocation, large quantities of water used, and inefficiency. A market-oriented policy could be implemented by accounting for ecological and political objectives such as saving groundwater and safeguarding historical rights while promoting economic efficiency. In this paper, a problem is solved by compromise programming, a multi-criteria technique based on the principles of Simonian logic. The model is theoretically developed and applied to the Lorca region in Spain near the Mediterranean Sea.
D000383:Agriculture; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics*; D017046:Cost Savings; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D004777:Environment; D011050:Policy Making; D011057:Politics; D014881:Water Supply / Q000191:economics*