The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins

Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization m...

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Main Authors: Jeuland, M., Baker, J., Bartlett, R., Lacombe, Guillaume
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: IOP Publishing 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58419
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author Jeuland, M.
Baker, J.
Bartlett, R.
Lacombe, Guillaume
author_browse Baker, J.
Bartlett, R.
Jeuland, M.
Lacombe, Guillaume
author_facet Jeuland, M.
Baker, J.
Bartlett, R.
Lacombe, Guillaume
author_sort Jeuland, M.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization models are commonly-used for identifying efficient allocation of water across time and space, but such models typically assume full coordination. In the real world, investment and operational decisions for specific projects are often made without full consideration of potential downstream impacts. This paper describes a tractable methodology for evaluating the economic benefits of infrastructure coordination. We demonstrate its application over a range of water availability scenarios in a catchment of the Mekong located in Lao PDR, the Nam Ngum River Basin. Results from this basin suggest that coordination improves system net benefits from irrigation and hydropower by approximately 3–12% (or US$12-53 million/yr) assuming moderate levels of flood control, and that the magnitude of coordination benefits generally increases with the level of water availability and with inflow variability. Similar analyses would be useful for developing a systematic understanding of the factors that increase the costs of non-cooperation in river basin systems worldwide, and would likely help to improve targeting of efforts to stimulate complicated negotiations over water resources.
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spelling CGSpace584192025-06-17T08:23:12Z The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins Jeuland, M. Baker, J. Bartlett, R. Lacombe, Guillaume river basin management reservoirs costs water resources water power hydrology economic aspects models infrastructure flood control irrigation dams Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization models are commonly-used for identifying efficient allocation of water across time and space, but such models typically assume full coordination. In the real world, investment and operational decisions for specific projects are often made without full consideration of potential downstream impacts. This paper describes a tractable methodology for evaluating the economic benefits of infrastructure coordination. We demonstrate its application over a range of water availability scenarios in a catchment of the Mekong located in Lao PDR, the Nam Ngum River Basin. Results from this basin suggest that coordination improves system net benefits from irrigation and hydropower by approximately 3–12% (or US$12-53 million/yr) assuming moderate levels of flood control, and that the magnitude of coordination benefits generally increases with the level of water availability and with inflow variability. Similar analyses would be useful for developing a systematic understanding of the factors that increase the costs of non-cooperation in river basin systems worldwide, and would likely help to improve targeting of efforts to stimulate complicated negotiations over water resources. 2014-10-01 2015-03-17T14:39:57Z 2015-03-17T14:39:57Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58419 en Open Access IOP Publishing Jeuland, M.; Baker, J.; Bartlett, R.; Lacombe, Guillaume. 2014. The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins. Environmental Research Letters, 9(10):1-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105006
spellingShingle river basin management
reservoirs
costs
water resources
water power
hydrology
economic aspects
models
infrastructure
flood control
irrigation
dams
Jeuland, M.
Baker, J.
Bartlett, R.
Lacombe, Guillaume
The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title_full The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title_fullStr The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title_full_unstemmed The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title_short The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
title_sort costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi reservoir river basins
topic river basin management
reservoirs
costs
water resources
water power
hydrology
economic aspects
models
infrastructure
flood control
irrigation
dams
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58419
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