Mixed Bag: Simulating Market-Based Instruments for Water Quality and Quantity in the Upper Waikato

We designed and implemented participatory computer simulations in three workshops in New Zealand's Upper Waikato catchment to learn how market-based instruments (MBIs) might improve freshwater outcomes when managing water and land resources within limits. An Excel-based platform was built to simulate, in stakeholder workshops, the use of transferable permits and user charges for both water quantity and water quality in the Upper Waikato catchment. Each participant managed a hypothetical property in a simplified catchment that included seven farms, a pulp mill, district council, and a hydro - electric company. Based on profit schedules and policy settings, participants made choices about production intensity, land use change and trading of water and/or nutrient allowances. The simulations highlighted the social and cultural context in which MBIs must operate, and how that context influences the outcomes that we can expect from MBIs. Participants found the simulations to be a valuable learning experience

The adoption of market-based instruments for resource management: Three case studies

Market-based instruments (MBIs) for resource management create financial incentives for people and businesses to use resources more efficiently, within a regulatory context designed to ensure that ecological, social and cultural objectives are also met. Three case studies were done to identify factors influencing the adoption or rejection of market-based instruments in New Zealand. Case studies included Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) for New Zealand's inshore fisheries, Transferable Water Permits (TWPs) in Tasman District and Waikato Region, and charges for occupation of coastal space at both the national and regional levels in New Zealand. This paper provides a summary of findings from these case studies. These include: MBIs are difficult to implement if they threaten the position of existing users. It is important to have clear objectives. Norms and values can be an obstacle to MBIs, especially where they help to protect the interests of key stakeholders, but value-based opposition can be overcome if practical concerns are addressed.market-based instruments, ITQ, transferable water permits, coastal occupation charges, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,

OECD principles on water governance in practice:an assessment of existing frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America

Through the lens of the 12 OECD Principles on Water Governance, this article examines six water resources and water services frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America to understand enhancing and constraining contextual factors. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze each framework against four criteria: alignment; implementation; on-ground results; and policy impact. Four main target areas are identified for improving water governance: policy coherence; financing; managing trade-offs; and ensuring integrity and transparency by all decision makers and stakeholders. Suggestions are presented to support practical implementation of the principles through better government action and stakeholder involvement.No Full Tex

Collaboration and modelling – tools for integration in the Motueka catchment, New Zealand

A conceptual model of integrated catchment management (ICM) is presented in which ICM is defined as a process to achieve both ecosystem resilience and community resilience. It requires not only biophysical knowledge developed by hydrologists and other environmental scientists, but an active partnership with catchment communities and stakeholders to break the ‘paradigm lock’ described by the UNESCO-HELP programme.This paper reports observations from ICM research in the Motueka HELP demonstration basin in the upper South Island of New Zealand. The Motueka occupies 2 170 km2 of land yet the river effects are felt on the seabed more than 50 km2 offshore, so the true ‘catchment’ is larger. A hydrologically temperate mountainous catchment with horticultural, agricultural, plantation forestry and conservation land uses, the Motueka also hosts an internationally recognised brown trout fishery. Land and water management issues driving ICM research include water allocation conflicts between instream and irrigation water uses, impacts on water quality of runoff from intensifying land uses, catchment impacts on coastal productivity and aquaculture, and how to manage catchment processes in an integrated way that addresses cumulative effects of development.Collaboration with catchment stakeholders can be viewed as having two primary purposes:• Building knowledge and commitment of resource users towards sustainable resource management (collaborative learning)• Stakeholder involvement in resource management itself (governance).Examples are presented of a Collaborative Learning Group on Sediment learning of their differing perspectives on fine sediment impacts, and a Catchment Landcare Group working with scientists to improve water quality in their river. Success factors for water user committees making decisions about water resource management include creating opportunities to communicate and build trust, share scientific knowledge on the issue, and willingness to compromise. Functioning catchment groups have potential to take on delegated governance responsibility for meeting agreed water quality and other community goals.Finally a scenario modelling framework IDEAS (Integrated Dynamic Environmental Assessment System) is presented, in which environmental indicators such as nutrient fluxes are simulated alongside socio-economic indicators such as job numbers and catchment GDP for a range of land and marine use options.Keywords: integrated catchment management (ICM), resilience, HELP, UNESCO, water governance, Landcare, scenario modelling, collaborative learning, water allocation, water user committees, catchment groups, watershed managemen

The adoption of market-based instruments for resource management: Three case studies

Market-based instruments (MBIs) for resource management create financial incentives for people and businesses to use resources more efficiently, within a regulatory context designed to ensure that ecological, social and cultural objectives are also met. Three case studies were done to identify factors influencing the adoption or rejection of market-based instruments in New Zealand. Case studies included Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) for New Zealand's inshore fisheries, Transferable Water Permits (TWPs) in Tasman District and Waikato Region, and charges for occupation of coastal space at both the national and regional levels in New Zealand. This paper provides a summary of findings from these case studies. These include: MBIs are difficult to implement if they threaten the position of existing users. It is important to have clear objectives. Norms and values can be an obstacle to MBIs, especially where they help to protect the interests of key stakeholders, but value-based opposition can be overcome if practical concerns are addressed

Mixed bag: Simulating market-based instruments for water quality and quantity in the Upper Waikato

We designed and implemented participatory computer simulations in three workshops in New Zealand’s Upper Waikato catchment to learn how market-based instruments (MBIs) might improve freshwater outcomes when managing water and land resources within limits. An Excel-based platform was built to simulate, in stakeholder workshops, the use of transferable permits and user charges for both water quantity and water quality in the Upper Waikato catchment. Each participant managed a hypothetical property in a simplified catchment that included seven farms, a pulp mill, district council, and a hydro-electric company. Based on profit schedules and policy settings, participants made choices about production intensity, land use change and trading of water and/or nutrient allowances. The simulations highlighted the social and cultural context in which MBIs must operate, and how that context influences the outcomes that we can expect from MBIs. Participants found the simulations to be a valuable learning experience

Waimea Plains: Economics of freshwater quantity management

The Waimea Plains (Tasman District, New Zealand) is a major horticulture area, highly reliant on irrigation. Irrigators draw water from an integrated surface water and groundwater system. Fresh water is over-allocated by 64%. Irrigators face significant restrictions due to natural fluctuations in river flow and groundwater levels, i.e. water is unreliable. This case study evaluates different options to address these problems. A catchment optimisation model is used to assess the benefits from enabling water permit transfers and from the proposed Waimea Community Dam (‘the dam’). A spreadsheet model is used to assess the impact of different ways of cutting back water permits, should the dam not go ahead. The case study is based on farm- and orchard-level models which estimate irrigation need, profit and nitrogen leaching under different levels of water allocation, reliability and soil type for apples, viticulture, market gardening and dairy farming over a period of 40 years. Key findings are that: • water permit transfers would result in moderate benefits on average (8.6% increase in average profit) but significant benefits in dry years (46% increase in profit); • the dam would result in significant benefits by enabling expansion of irrigated areas and conversion from unirrigated pasture to higher value crops, and providing a reliable water supply for existing and future irrigators (103% increase in average profit and 10% decrease in nitrogen leaching). • Should the dam not go ahead, water permit cuts based on irrigation need would result in lower, and a more even distribution of, costs than flat-rate cuts

Improving Water Governance in New Zealand – Stakeholder Views of Catchment Management Processes and Plans

Water governance refers to the institutions, legislation and decision-making processes applied to develop and manage water resources. As pressures on water resources increase there has been a realisation that technocratically-driven water management has not achieved desired sustainability outcomes. Attention must be focused not only on better scientific understanding of water and its values and uses, but also on what constitutes good water governance

Modelling Impacts of Land Cover Change on Critical Water Resources in the Motueka River Catchment, New Zealand

Landcare Research, New Zealand; Foundation for Research, Science and Technology [C09X0305]After the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model was calibrated and validated to historic flow records for the current land use conditions, two additional land cover scenarios (a prehistoric land cover and a potential maximum plantation pine cover) were used to evaluate the impacts of land cover change on total water yields, groundwater flow, and quick flow in the Motueka River catchment, New Zealand. Low-flow characteristics and their potential impacts on availability for water abstraction and for support of in-stream habitat values were focused on. The results showed that the annual total water yields, quick flow and baseflow decreased moderately in the two scenarios when compared with the current actual land use. The annual water balance for the pine potential land cover scenario did not differ substantially from the prehistoric scenario for the catchment as whole. However, there were more notable differences among individual tributary catchments, which could be attributed to the relative area of land cover altered and location of those catchments. Simulated low flows for the prehistoric and potential pine land cover scenarios were both significantly lower than the low flows for the current land use. In summary, under the current land use conditions, both annual water yield and low flow are higher than was the case before human intervention in the area or in a maximum commercial reforestation scenario

Participatory modelling with an influence matrix and the calculation of whole-of-system sustainability values

This paper documents the results of a participatory modelling trial involving an influence matrix with a group of researchers and community members in the Motueka Catchment of New Zealand. In this trail, the influence matrix was used to calculate whole-of-system sustainability-values used to: (i) guide system dynamic model development, (ii) build understanding about the functional role of system factors, and (iii) contribute to method and theory development in a sustainability research context. This paper provides: (i) an historical account of the theoretical development of the influence matrix, (ii) theoretical justification for the use of this tool in the estimation of whole-of-system sustainability values, and (iii) a stepwise account of how the method has been trialled in a New Zealand case study, including an evaluation of its limitations and areas where future research is needed.cross impact; Frederic Vester; influence matrix; integrated catchment management; matrix forecasting; Motueka Catchment; New Zealand; participatory modelling; sustainability values; whole-of-system; sustainable development; system dynamics.