Adaptive water management in Israel: structure and policy options

Abstract

Difficulties in integrating technical, economic and institutional factors present a major gap in analytical capacity to guide water policy. This article presents an integrated framework to support water policy and guide water management choices, with application to Israel. That framework rests on the theory of economic policy originally developed by Tinbergen. It sees national water challenges as consisting of external factors, constraints, policy instruments and targets. The need for a modern implementation of the theory of economic policy is motivated by emerging environmental requirements, scarce water, growing demands for domestic use, and ongoing needs to implement existing and potential peace agreements.

Keywords::

• theory of economic policy
• Israel
• water
• environment
• peace

Notes

1. Industrial water use can be compared to agricultural water demand because water is treated as an intermediate good. However, industrial water use has been pretty constant over the years (State of Israel Water Authority, 2012). It is probably a balance of increase in demand due to economic growth, combined with a growing efficiency in the use of water: these two forces almost balance each other. The demand for industrial purposes ranges is 90–110 million m³ annually and therefore it can be treated as a constraint or decision variable. The overall demand does not change much, so results will be the same either way.