Three essays on the economy of water, using environmental social accounting matrices

Abstract

The doctoral thesis entitled "Three essays of the economy of water, using Environmental Social Accounting Matrices" centers on studies within the fields of environmental input-output analysis, examining aspects of economic structure, and water flows underlying sales and trade among sectors and countries. The context of study was the last decade, and geographically, mainly the Spanish territory as reference (especially in the second and third Chapters), and more precisely in the first Chapter the province of Huesca, situated in the Spanish region of Aragon. Hence after a chapter of background and methodology, the first chapter analyzes the Water Footprint (WF) of this province and the Virtual Water (VW) flows with the rest of Spain and the rest of the world, by disaggregating intensively its Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) in the agrarian sector. The second chapter examines those issues for Spain, with its SAM disaggregated not only with agrarian subsectors, but also in all the agroalimentary system as a whole (meaning the industry of food, its trade, the destination at the hotels and restaurants, etc.). Finally the third chapter extends the analysis by providing scenarios and simulations of variation of WF based on economic changes, payments for water and demands (especially diets). Political implications are discussed, including analysis and reflections on the blue and green water concepts (taking hydrologic and economic approaches); something which is extended in the fourth chapter of conclusions and open lines for future research.