Socio-Economics and Water Management: Revisiting the Contribution of Economics in the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in Greece and Cyprus

This chapter sets out the socio-economic principles that should govern water resources management for the achievement of a sustainable allocation of the resource over time and across space, in accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive. The resulting allocation should be economically efficient, social equitable and acceptable, and environmentally sustainable. The main background concept guiding the identification of such an allocation is that of the 'Total Economic Value (TEV)' of water resources, which derives from the ecosystem goods and services that water resources provide the economy and society. In this chapter we present the state-of-the-art with regards to estimating TEV of water resources and explain how these estimations can facilitate the design and implementation of the different European policies in relation to mitigation of different forms of water stress.