IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aesc13/158690.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Myths and Maths of Water Efficiency: An Analytical Framework to Assess the Real Outcome of Water Saving Technologies in Irrigation

Author

Listed:
  • Gomez Gomez, Carlos Mario
  • Perez Blanco, Carlos Dionisio

Abstract

Greening the economy is mostly about improving water governance and not only about putting the existing resource saving technical alternatives into practice. Focusing in the second and forgetting the first risks finishing with a highly efficient use of water services at the level of each individual user but demanding an unsustainable amount of water for the entire economy. This might be happening already in many places with the so-called modernization of irrigated agriculture: the world’s largest water user and the one offering the more promising water saving opportunities. Actual savings seem to be far from expected and modern irrigation techniques seem not to be contributing to reduce water scarcity and increase drought resilience. In fact, according to the little evidence available, they seem to be doing the opposite: increasing water demand and depletion. Building on basic economic principles this paper aims at showing the conditions under which this apparently paradoxical outcome might appear. This basic model is expected to serve as guidance for assessing the actual outcomes of enhancing irrigation efficiency and to discuss the changes in water governance that would be required for this to make a real contribution to a sustainable water management.

Suggested Citation

  • Gomez Gomez, Carlos Mario & Perez Blanco, Carlos Dionisio, 2013. "Myths and Maths of Water Efficiency: An Analytical Framework to Assess the Real Outcome of Water Saving Technologies in Irrigation," 87th Annual Conference, April 8-10, 2013, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 158690, Agricultural Economics Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesc13:158690
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.158690
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/158690/files/Carlos%20Mario_G_mez%20G_mez_AES13_finalversion.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.158690?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. David L. Greene & James R. Kahn & Robert C. Gibson, 1999. "Fuel Economy Rebound Effect for U.S. Household Vehicles," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-31.
    2. J. Daniel Khazzoom, 1989. "Energy Savings from More Efficient Appliances: A Rejoinder," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 157-166.
    3. Pfeiffer, Lisa & Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia, 2012. "Groundwater pumping and spatial externalities in agriculture," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 16-30.
    4. Dolores Tirado & Carlos M. Gómez & Javier Lozano, 2006. "Efficiency improvements and water policy in the balearic islands: a general equilibrium approach," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 30(3), pages 441-463, September.
    5. A. Greening, Lorna & Greene, David L. & Difiglio, Carmen, 2000. "Energy efficiency and consumption -- the rebound effect -- a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 389-401, June.
    6. Alcott, Blake, 2005. "Jevons' paradox," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 9-21, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Alcott, Blake, 2008. "The sufficiency strategy: Would rich-world frugality lower environmental impact," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 770-786, February.
    2. Carlos Gómez & C. Pérez-Blanco, 2014. "Simple Myths and Basic Maths About Greening Irrigation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(12), pages 4035-4044, September.
    3. Stela Rubínová, 2011. "Reakce poptávky domácností po energii na zvyšování energetické účinnosti: teorie a její důsledky pro konstrukci empiricky ověřitelných modelů [Reaction of Household Energy Demand to Improvements in," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2011(3), pages 359-378.
    4. Carlos Dionisio Pérez Blanco & Carlos Mario Gómez Gómez, 2014. "An Integrated Risk Assessment Model for the Implementation of Drought Insurance Markets in Spain," Working Papers 2014.62, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    5. Ghoddusi, Hamed & Roy, Mandira, 2017. "Supply elasticity matters for the rebound effect and its impact on policy comparisons," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 111-120.
    6. Moshiri, Saeed, 2020. "Consumer responses to gasoline price and non-price policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Alcott, Blake, 2005. "Jevons' paradox," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 9-21, July.
    8. Lecca, Patrizio & Swales, Kim & Turner, Karen, 2011. "Rebound Effects from Increased Efficiency in the Use of Energy by UK Households," SIRE Discussion Papers 2011-34, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. David Font Vivanco & Jaume Freire‐González & Ray Galvin & Tilman Santarius & Hans Jakob Walnum & Tamar Makov & Serenella Sala, 2022. "Rebound effect and sustainability science: A review," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1543-1563, August.
    10. Winebrake, James J. & Green, Erin H. & Comer, Bryan & Corbett, James J. & Froman, Sarah, 2012. "Estimating the direct rebound effect for on-road freight transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 252-259.
    11. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    12. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    13. Orea, Luis & Llorca, Manuel & Filippini, Massimo, 2015. "A new approach to measuring the rebound effect associated to energy efficiency improvements: An application to the US residential energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 599-609.
    14. repec:hal:gemwpa:hal-00991732 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Freire-González, Jaume, 2017. "Evidence of direct and indirect rebound effect in households in EU-27 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 270-276.
    16. Kurt Kratena & Ina Meyer & Michael Wüger, 2009. "Ökonomische, technologische und soziodemographische Einflussfaktoren der Energienachfrage," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 82(7), pages 525-538, July.
    17. Shao, Shuai & Huang, Tao & Yang, Lili, 2014. "Using latent variable approach to estimate China׳s economy-wide energy rebound effect over 1954–2010," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 235-248.
    18. Sorrell, Steve & Dimitropoulos, John, 2008. "The rebound effect: Microeconomic definitions, limitations and extensions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 636-649, April.
    19. Wang, H. & Zhou, P. & Zhou, D.Q., 2012. "An empirical study of direct rebound effect for passenger transport in urban China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 452-460.
    20. Achim Voß, 2015. "How Disagreement About Social Costs Leads to Inefficient Energy-Productivity Investment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(4), pages 521-548, April.
    21. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2014. "Household transitions to energy efficient lighting," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-160.

    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:ags:aesc13:158690. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aesukea.html .

    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.