BENEFIT COST ANALYSIS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FLOW OPTIONS: THOMSON AND MACALISTER RIVERS

摘要

Natural resource economists in URS Australia were asked by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment to assess one of the most important contemporary questions in water resource management, that is, "how do we best share water resources between the three principal water users"; namely, the environment, irrigators and urban users. In late 2000, a Task Force was established to review the bulk entitlements for the Macalister and Thomson Rivers in Victoria. Five scenarios spanning the extremes were analysed for the economic, social and environmental values of water. While most of the flow regimes assessed were economic - having positive benefit cost ratios - our assessment showed that the preferred option was one of the compromise options, where the benefits of some increase in environmental flow remained high, but relative to the 'full' recommended flows the impacts on irrigators and the urban user, Melbourne Water, were reduced.