Analysing the agricultural costs and non-market benefits of implementing the Water Framework Directive

Ian J. Bateman, Roy Brouwer, Helen Davies, Brett H. Day, Amelie Deflandre, Salvatore Di Falco, Stavros Georgiou, David Hadley, Michael Hutchins, Andrew P. Jones, David Kay, Graham Leeks, Mervyn Lewis, Andrew A. Lovett, Colin Neal, Paulette Posen, Dan Rigby, R. Kerry Turner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

86 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents a fundamental change in the management of water in Europe with a requirement that member states ensure ‘good ecological status’ for all water bodies by 2015. Agriculture is expected to bear a major share of WFD implementation costs as it is compelled to reduce the emission of diffuse water pollutants. The research outlined here comprises interdisciplinary modelling of agricultural land use, hydrology and consequent water quality effects to consider both agricultural costs and the non-market recreational use (and potentially non-use) values that implementation of the Directive may generate. A theme throughout the research is the spatial distribution of the costs and benefits of WFD implementation, which is addressed through the use of GIS techniques in the modelling of agricultural land use, the integration of land use and hydrological models, and the estimation, aggregation and transfer of the economic value of the benefits.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)221-237
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Agricultural Economics
Volume57
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2006

Keywords

  • Benefits transfer
  • GIS
  • non-point pollution
  • Water Framework Directive

Cite this