Idhirij Saleh, Ward Frank A
Water Science and Management Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, Water Science and Management, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Aug;365:121528. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121528. Epub 2024 Jun 22.
Water policymakers internationally face the challenge of adapting to climate, supporting environmental resource needs, and meeting irrigation demands for food security in the world's arid and semi-arid regions. Much recent work has assessed the economic performance of environmental river flows to support endangered species habitat protection. However, little published work to date has systematically formulated and applied methods to identify the economic performance of various policy measures that adapt to climate, support endangered species, and meet irrigation demands for water. This work's original contribution with international relevance is to address those gaps by identifying the economic performance of various water shortage sharing methods for handling climate water stress while supporting protection of critical habitat to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) along with Willow tree (Salix bonplandiana) habitat in the middle part of the Rio Grande Basin in North America, a region facing a number of conflicts between commercial uses of water and protection of key ecological assets. It develops a hydroeconomic optimization model containing information on crop water use and endangered species requirements in that region to identify the economic performance of three climate adaptation policy scenarios for handling water shortages while respecting endangered species habitat protection requirements. Results show how water shortages as well as policy responses for handing those shortages affect the economic value of water in agriculture for food security both with and without critical habitat to support the endangered flycatcher. This work's international relevance comes from its capacity to inform policy debates on the costs of protecting endangered species habitat under various climate scenarios and climate policy adaptation measures. Findings provide a general framework to address existing gaps in understanding and measuring the economic performance of measures to promote environmental resilience.
国际上的水资源政策制定者面临着诸多挑战，包括适应气候变化、满足环境资源需求以及在世界干旱和半干旱地区满足灌溉需求以保障粮食安全。近期的许多工作评估了为支持濒危物种栖息地保护而进行的环境河流流量的经济绩效。然而，迄今为止，很少有已发表的工作系统地制定并应用方法来确定各种适应气候、支持濒危物种以及满足灌溉用水需求的政策措施的经济绩效。这项具有国际相关性的原创性工作旨在填补这些空白，通过确定各种缺水分担方法的经济绩效来应对气候水资源压力，同时支持关键栖息地的保护，以保护北美格兰德河盆地中部濒危的西南柳莺（Empidonax traillii extimus）以及柳树（Salix bonplandiana）栖息地，该地区在水资源商业利用和关键生态资产保护之间面临诸多冲突。它开发了一个包含该地区作物用水和濒危物种需求信息的水文经济优化模型，以确定三种适应气候政策情景在处理水资源短缺同时尊重濒危物种栖息地保护要求时的经济绩效。结果显示了水资源短缺以及应对这些短缺的政策措施如何影响有和没有支持濒危柳莺的关键栖息地情况下农业用水保障粮食安全的经济价值。这项工作的国际相关性源于其能够为关于在各种气候情景和气候政策适应措施下保护濒危物种栖息地成本的政策辩论提供信息。研究结果提供了一个总体框架，以解决在理解和衡量促进环境复原力措施的经济绩效方面存在的差距。
