IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/natres/v21y1997i3p191-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reflections on the meaning of sustainable development in the water sector

Author

Listed:
  • W. Richard Dubourg

Abstract

Economic interpretations of sustainable development have concentrated on the need to maintain the aggregate capital stock intact, so as to ensure a constant stream of welfare through time. A sectoral approach to sustainability, in terms of this model, will be justified if substitution possibilities between that sector and the rest of the economy are limited. This assumption is examined in relation to the water sector, and it is found that further assumptions about substitution possibilities need to be made within the sector itself. Suggestions are offered as to how such substitutions might be made to advantage, which is contrasted to recent water management practices in England and Wales. It is argued that assumptions about substitution possibilities are in general overly restrictive, with the result that sustainability objectives fall short of optimum levels that could be achieved.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Richard Dubourg, 1997. "Reflections on the meaning of sustainable development in the water sector," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 21(3), pages 191-200, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:21:y:1997:i:3:p:191-200
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.1997.tb00692.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.1997.tb00692.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1477-8947.1997.tb00692.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dubourg & Jones‐Lee & Graham Loomes, 1997. "Imprecise Preferences and Survey Design in Contingent Valuation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(256), pages 681-702, November.
    2. John Hartwick, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investment of Rents from Exhaustible Resources in a Two Sector Model," Working Paper 281, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    3. Hartwick, John M., 1978. "Investing returns from depleting renewable resource stocks and intergenerational equity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 85-88.
    4. Hanley, Nick D & Moffatt, Ian, 1993. "Efficiency and Distributional Aspects of Market Mechanisms in the Control of Pollution: An Empirical Analysis," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 40(1), pages 69-87, February.
    5. R. M. Solow, 1974. "Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 29-45.
    6. Sen, Amartya, 1985. "A Sociological Approach to the Measurement of Poverty: A Reply [Poor, Relatively Speaking]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 669-676, December.
    7. Hartwick, John M, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 972-974, December.
    8. Hahn, Robert W, 1989. "Economic Prescriptions for Environmental Problems: How the Patient Followed the Doctor's Orders," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 95-114, Spring.
    9. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808, Decembrie.
    10. John M. Hartwick, 1978. "Substitution Among Exhaustible Resources and Intergenerational Equity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(2), pages 347-354.
    11. Giles Atkinson & Richard Dubourg & Kirk Hamilton & Mohan Munasinghe & David Pearce & Carlos Young, 1997. "Measuring Sustainable Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1242.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacob J. Burke & Claude Sauveplane & Marcus Moench, 1999. "Groundwater management and socio‐economic responses," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(4), pages 303-313, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Toman, Michael & Pezzey, John C., 2002. "The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-03, Resources for the Future.
    2. Adrian Boos, 2015. "Genuine Savings as an Indicator for “Weak” Sustainability: Critical Survey and Possible Ways forward in Practical Measuring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-37, April.
    3. Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh & Marjan W. Hofkes, 1997. "A Survey of Economic Modelling of Sustainable Development," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 97-107/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Nick Hanley & Louis Dupuy & Eoin McLaughlin, 2015. "Genuine Savings And Sustainability," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 779-806, September.
    5. Daniele Schilirò, 2019. "Sustainability, Innovation, and Efficiency: A Key Relationship," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, in: Magdalena Ziolo & Bruno S. Sergi (ed.), Financing Sustainable Development, chapter 0, pages 83-102, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Roman Inderst & Eftichios Sartzetakis & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2021. "Technical Report on Sustainability and Competition," DEOS Working Papers 2103, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    7. Robert U. Ayres & Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh & John M. Gowdy, 1998. "Viewpoint: Weak versus Strong Sustainability," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 98-103/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Asheim, Geir B. & Hartwick, John M. & Yamaguchi, Rintaro, 2023. "Sustainable per capita consumption under population growth," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Mircea Saveanu, 2014. "Sustainability as a Resource Distribution Constraint," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 10(2), pages 139-151, April.
    10. Perrings, Charles, 2014. "Environment and development economics 20 years on," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 333-366, June.
    11. Asheim, Geir B. & Hartwick, John M. & Mitra, Tapan, 2021. "Investment rules and time invariance under population growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    13. Carl Obst & Lars Hein & Bram Edens, 2016. "National Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Assets and Their Services," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(1), pages 1-23, May.
    14. Tricia Glazebrook & Emmanuela Opoku, 2020. "Gender and Sustainability: Learning from Women’s Farming in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-20, December.
    15. Alban Verchère, 2011. "Le développement durable en question : analyses économiques autour d’un improbable compromis entre acceptions optimiste et pessimiste du rapport de l’Homme à la Nature," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 87(3), pages 337-403.
    16. Klepper, Gernot & Stahler, Frank, 1998. "Sustainabilty in Closed and Open Economies," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 488-506, August.
    17. Padmanabha Hota & Bhagirath Behera, 2016. "Opencast coal mining and sustainable local livelihoods in Odisha, India," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, April.
    18. Faucheux, Sylvie & Froger, Geraldine & Noel, Jean-Francois, 1995. "What forms of rationality for sustainable development?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 169-209.
    19. Eoin McLaughlin & Cristián Ducoing & Les Oxley, 2024. "Tracing Sustainability in the Long Run: Genuine Savings Estimates, 1850–2018," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective, pages 63-100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:21:y:1997:i:3:p:191-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1477-8947 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.