Lecture 4 - Integrated River Basin Management. Payments for watershed services. CBA.

Lecturers:

Prof. Dr. Pieter van Beukering, Environmental economist.
Director Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM),
Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 
pieter.van.beukering@vu.nl  

Ana Clara Cassanti, Lecturer,
Institute for Environmental Studies
Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM),
Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
ana.cassanti@vu.nl 

This module evolves around economic methods for integrated river basin management (IRBM) and  assessing  aquatic  ecosystem  services,  which  addresses  important topics   like   payments   for   ecosystem   services   and   supply   and   demand   management. Before diving into IRBM, the disadvantages of Traditional Supply Management are discussed. Next, we discuss the advantages of IRBM such as the aim to achieve multiple objectives for resource use and protection of the aquatic environment. In the second part of the module, we will look into the system of payments for water and ecosystem services, considering the different types of ecosystem services payment schemes that have been developed and the types of ecosystem services to which they apply. Using concrete examples of payment for water and ecosystem schemes, the module discusses the performance of ecosystem services payment schemes and the main factors on which this performance depends. Finally, we focus on methods to combine the values of individual water and ecosystem services into a single measure. Such trade-off methods that evaluate decisions include cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis. Note that these evaluation techniques are different from valuation techniques because the latter values specific individual impacts in monetary terms, while the former combines these values in order to compare alter-native scenarios, policies or investments. We will use various examples ranging from the context of the Tana River Basin (Kenya), Atewa Watershed (Ghana) and the Inner Niger Delta (Mali).

Recorded lectures:

Lecture 4 - Integrated River Basin Management. Payments for watershed services. CBA (part 1)

Lecture 4 - Integrated River Basin Management. Payments for watershed services. CBA (part 2)

Lecture 4 - Integrated River Basin Management. Payments for watershed services. CBA (part 3)

Lecture 4 - Integrated River Basin Management. Payments for watershed services. CBA (part 4)

Practical : 

Assignment water valuation course_Cost benefit analysis_27_07 2.pptx