1st Edition

The Economics of Sustainable Urban Water Management: the Case of Beijing UNESCO-IHE PhD Thesis

By Xiao Liang Copyright 2011
    200 Pages
    by CRC Press

    202 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Rapid population growth, limited water availability, climate variability and environmental pollution together cause a significant challenge to provide sufficient water to urban residents in a sustainable and effective way. Advanced water treatment technology can contribute to the solution of problems physically, but it may not ensure sustainable operation of water systems.

    The obstacles to sustainable water supply and services often are from non-technical problems such as low cost recovery, lack of sound pricing systems and sustainable financing for increasing service coverage. The financial and economic factors could be a large barrier to the operation of water systems. Through the case of Beijing, the book demonstrates how to use economics in managing urban water systems. The research employs the methods of cost benefit analysis, linear programming and rough set analysis. An integrated and quantitative analysis of the economic, environmental and social effects of water systems considering the viewpoints of different stakeholders is carried out, which is rare in the existing literature.

    The research shows that economics contributes to identifying the non-technical problems in water systems and can help decision makers to make choices that are consistent with the long-term well being of the community.

    INTRODUCTION
    1.1 Problems in Cities
    1.2 Water Scarcity in Beijing
    1.3 Chinese Urban Water Management
    1.3.1 Technological measures
    1.3.2 Water governance structures
    1.3.3 New policies
    1.4 Economics for Sustainable Urban Water Management
    1.5 Research Objectives
    1.6 Research Methodology
    1.6.1 Evaluation framework
    1.6.2 About the data
    1.7 Economic Theory
    1.8 Research Outline

    FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF DECENTRALIZED WASTEWATER REUSE SYSTEMS
    2.1 Introduction
    2.2 About the Decentralized Wastewater Reuse Plants
    2.2.1 The Qingzhiyuan (Qing) plant
    2.2.2 The Beijing Normal University (BNU) plant
    2.3 Financial Analysis
    2.4 Economic Analysis
    2.5 Results
    2.5.1 Results of economic and financial analysis
    2.5.2 Further discussion of the results
    2.6 Conclusions
    Notes

    FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF CENTRALIZED WASTEWATER REUSE SYSTEMS AND COMPARISON BETWEEN CENTRALIZED AND DECENTRALIZED SYSTEMS
    3.1 Introduction
    3.2 About the Centralized Wastewater Reuse Plants
    3.2.1 The Gaobeidian (Gao) plant
    3.2.2 The Jiuxianqiao (Jiu) plant
    3.3 Financial and Economic Analysis of Centralized Wastewater Reuse Systems
    3.3.1 Financial analysis
    3.3.2 Economic analysis
    3.3.3 Results of financial and economic analysis
    3.3.4 Conclusions of financial and economic analysis
    3.4 Comparison between Decentralized and Centralized Wastewater Reuse Systems
    3.4.1 Financial and economic feasibility
    3.4.2 Environmental and social effects
    3.4.3 Initial investments
    3.4.4 About O&M cost
    3.4.5 Cost recovery
    3.5 Conclusions
    Notes

    ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS
    4.1 Introduction
    4.2 About the Rainwater Harvesting Systems
    4.3 Methodology
    4.3.1 Economic analysis
    4.3.2 Financial analysis
    4.4 Results of Economic Analysis
    4.5 Results of Financial Analysis
    4.5.1 Comparison between the three options
    4.5.2 Further discussion
    4.6 Conclusions
    Notes

    GROUNDWATER CHARGE AND RAINWATER CONSUMPTION FOR AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT
    5.1 Introduction
    5.2 A Theoretical Analysis using Graphs
    5.3 Linear Programming
    5.3.1 Data
    5.3.2 Linear programming model
    5.3.3 Graphical solution of linear programming
    5.3.4 Optimal threshold and groundwater charge
    5.4 Conclusions
    Notes

    DECISIVE FACTORS AFFECTING THE OPERATION OF RAINWATER HARVESTING PLANTS
    6.1 Introduction
    6.2 A Concise Overview of the Cases
    6.3 Chosen Factors
    6.3.1 Ownership
    6.3.2 Farmers’ perception of rainwater
    6.3.3 Doubts about rainwater quality
    6.3.4 Location
    6.3.5 Availability of groundwater
    6.3.6 Size of storage tank
    6.3.7 Irrigation methods
    6.3.8 Technical problems
    6.3.9 Subsidies for initial investment
    6.3.10 Subsidies for operation and maintenance
    6.4 Rough Set Analysis
    6.5 Discussion of Results
    6.6 Conclusions
    Notes

    CONCLUSIONS
    7.1 Introduction
    7.2 Summary of Contents and Findings
    7.3 Conclusions
    7.4 Contributions of the Research

    References

    Biography

    Xiao Liang