Aims and objectives and description of the course
The course aims to develop a coherent mainstream economic view on the social and natural aspects of complex water-resource management issues.
Course description
The course takes a step by step approach, gradually widening the perspective and the complexity of water issues. Starting with drinking water provision, it will go through the regulation of water infrastructures, water resource allocation, river basin management to the primary role of forests and ecosystem (land) management. It will also cover the provision of indirectly consumed water services – e.g. environmental security, floods.
The course will review from an economic perspective the most important pieces of water legislation in the European Union, namely, the Water Framework Directive and its sister directive on Flood.
The discussion will reflect on the provision of water services that local institutions can create and organize and the institutional economics question about the role that the state is able to fulfil. This approach on the economic commodity space will be enriched by the Ecosystem Service paradigm.
Course topics
Week 1: Introduction and course outline.
Week 2: From a spring to a utility – the provision of drinking water and sewage services
Week 3: Group work: modelling the financial operation of a water utility, excel based scenario analysis and decision support experiment
Week 4: The value of water
Week 5: Conflicting water uses among sectors and countries
Week 6: The design and operation of water markets
Week 7: How to manage groundwater resources?
Week 8: Ecosystem services, landscape management, green infrastructures
Week 9: Flood risk management
Week 10: The forest-water management nexus
Week 11: Complex river basin management and its implementation in the EU
Week 12: An economist’s view on the water cycle as an indicator of complex social-ecologic interactions.
Technical details
The course takes place at the CUB Building C in Room 426 on Fridays at 8 a.m.
Admission through the CUB Neptun portal during the registration period (until 13th September 2019).
Guest students from other universities are also welcome.
A few words about the Water Economics Unit of REKK, the provider of the course
