Abstract
In recent years, the environmental devastation simultaneously with the population growth has resulted at many hard to solve problems. Science develops proper tools to cope with these problems and achieve sustainable development. The present thesis aims at accentuate the possibility to use the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to estimate the economic use value of irrigation water. In the first two chapters, the present situation is described, concerning the use and the distribution of water resources, as well as the problems that arise from their thoughtless use. The basic principles, that water resources management is based on up today are described, and also the directions that are followed at present and resulted from the directives and the regulations that publish organizations and agencies of world range, as the World Bank, the OECD and the European Union. In the third chapter the reasons for using economic tools in the water resources management are described and the basic princi ...
In recent years, the environmental devastation simultaneously with the population growth has resulted at many hard to solve problems. Science develops proper tools to cope with these problems and achieve sustainable development. The present thesis aims at accentuate the possibility to use the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to estimate the economic use value of irrigation water. In the first two chapters, the present situation is described, concerning the use and the distribution of water resources, as well as the problems that arise from their thoughtless use. The basic principles, that water resources management is based on up today are described, and also the directions that are followed at present and resulted from the directives and the regulations that publish organizations and agencies of world range, as the World Bank, the OECD and the European Union. In the third chapter the reasons for using economic tools in the water resources management are described and the basic principles of cost – benefit analysis and the theoretical basis of environmental valuation are presented. In the fourth chapter the economic methods of natural resources assessment are presented. In particular, the implementation field and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are reported. In the end of this chapter the criteria of deciding on the most suitable method for each occasion are described. The region that is selected for the application of the contingent valuation method is the Chalkidiki peninsula, of which the basic characteristics are described in the fifth chapter. This area is selected, because of its proximity in Thessaloniki and its agricultural exploitation characteristics. For the comparative evaluation of the results of the contingent valuation method, the hedonic pricing method is selected, the application of which in the region of Chalkidiki is presented in the sixth chapter. The annual value of irrigation water use that is estimated by the hedonic price method application in Chalkidiki results at about €370 per irrigated hectare for a hypothetical rate of return of 2.5%. On the other hand, in the seventh chapter where the application of the contingent valuation method is extensively presented, the annual use value of irrigation water is estimated that ranges between €230 and €375. The value that results from all the contingent valuation applications, which use respondents’ willingness to pay, is underestimated. The underestimated value is owed to human nature, thus it is prospective that everyone when expresses his personal willingness to pay, tends to underestimate it in order to increase his personal benefit. The results of the application of the contingent valuation method are evaluated positively, thus the main conclusion that results from the present thesis is that the application of the contingent valuation method for the assessment of irrigation water value in Greece is efficient in providing reliable results for the economic use value of irrigation water. Also, in the application of the contingent valuation method that is presented in the present study, the addition to the conventional contingent valuation application of the participation question is examined in the questionnaire. With the combination of the participation question and debriefing question that is used in certain applications of the method, one can identify the “protest votes”, which is one of the more important factors of bias, in all of the method’s applications. The contribution of the combination of participation question and debriefing question is positive.
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