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Virtual Water Trade Of Crops In The Wei River Basin

Posted on:2017-01-29Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:H T ShiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1109330485978742Subject:International trade of agricultural products and policies
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Water resources management is the issue of sustainable economic development and strategic decision which long-term concerned by the Chinese government and all the management departments. It is also the key field to solve water shortage, water pollution and water ecosystem degradation under the background of ecological civilization. The increasing demands of water-intensive products, such as crops, bring problems to all regions in water resource allocation. To solve the problem, virtual water trade strategy is often implemented to allowcate water resources by means of water-intensive products trade, such as crops. Virtual water trade strategy helps solve the water shortage problem in the view of resources endowment and trade liberalization. Another issue in water management is water resource non-market valuation; whitch is often used to determine the standard of payment for ecosystem services in policy making. By bringing non-market value into virtual water trade analysis, it theoretically supplemented endowment theory and comparative advantage theory, and practically has implecations for water allowcation policy making.Watershed is the natural agricultural production partition, and its water management policies should be related to the food safety policies. Using the water footprint theory and the production and consumption data of four crops in the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province, this dissertation measures the virtual water trade footprint and its market value of the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province. Then, this dissertation generalizes the ecosystem service functional attributes of the basin, and builds the watershed ecosystem service valuation system based on the maximize consumer utility theory. Using choice experiments, relevant econometric models and the field survey data in the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province, this dissertation also tests the preference heterogeneity on watershed ecosystem service functions of watershed residents, and does non-market valuation work on the watershed. Based on the measurements, this dissertation constructs an analytical framework and empirical analysis for influences on non-market value of virtual water trade. At last, this dissertation analyzes the response plan for non-market value of virtual water trade footprint on the view of both water resources management and water pricing, which aims to provide reliable basis for the implementation and improvement of water resources management policies and food safety policies.This dissertation consists of three parts, and here follows the main content of each part:The first part is introduction, described by chapter one. It proposes the research background, the significance of the study and the purpose responding to the attributes and the application of virtual water trade. It points out that it is an important research for the value of virtual water trade footprint after literature review. Then it reveals the technological route, summarizes the method, and finally it mentions the originality of this study.The second part including chapter two and three is a theoretical analysis on value of virtual water trade. Chapter two firstly defines several important items which is the basis for later theoretical and empirical analysis. Then it sorts out the basic theoretical knowledge on welfare economics, WTP, CE, classical trade and neoclassical trade. Chapter three illustrates the virtual water trade model based on comparative advantage theory, resource flow theory and resource substitution theory, and also introduces the methods to measure virtual water trade footprint. Then it combines the two theories and a model to construct a theoretical model on virtual water trade footprint based on non-market values, and proposes the corresponding research assumptions.The third part including chapter four, five, six and seven is the empirical analysis and response plan for virtual water trade footprint based on non-market values. Chapter four analyzes the trade situation of the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province, and measures the virtual water trade footprint of grain crops using the production and consumption data of four grain crops from 2010 to 2014. Then it measures the market value of virtual water trade footprint based on the agriculture water price. Using choice experiments, chapter five takes environmental improvements of the Wei river basin as an example. From the perspective of utility and willingness to pay, it does research on preference heterogeneity of ecosystem service function with the help of mixed logit model and Latent Class model. Chapter six firstly applies contingent valuation method to measure the willingness to pay of ecosystem services in Wei River basin based on the Micro-data of river basin residents, and does empirical analysis to research on the influencing factors of willingness to pay using an ordered probit model. Then it seeks for the main influencing factors for the virtual water trade footprint for the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province based on a theoretical analysis. Based on the previous empirical analysis, chapter seven builds the response plan on the view of both water resources management and water resource pricing.The main empirical results are as follows:(1) The empirical results of crop virtual water trade footprint show that: firstly, the consumption of rice and soybean comes mainly from imports, and the consumption of wheat and corn is mainly from inner production. Secondly, the crop virtual water trade footprint has been in the state of net input for the Wei river basin from 2010 to 2014, and it eases the pressure on water shortage to some extent. The average virtual water trade footprint for the four crops is 204 million cubic meters during the five years. Thirdly, the virtual water trade footprint for each crop shows great difference. The virtual water trade footprint for rice and soybean is greater than wheat and corn. Lastly, the average market value of virtual water trade footprint for the four crops is 129 million yuan during the five years.(2) The empirical results of water resources valuation show that the residents living in the Wei river basin have strong preference heterogeneity on ecosystem services. The results of choice experiments indicate that the residents know much about the non-market value of the ecosystem services for the Wei river basin, and are expected for the improvements for the ecosystem services. With the results of mixed logit model and implicit prices, residents have larger willingness to pay for water quality and water quantity, and have lower willingness to pay for natural landscape and ecological tourism. With the results of latent class model, preference heterogeneity is mainly revealed by the difference of consumers’ willingness to pay on the same attribute. What’s more, the ecosystem services of the Wei river basin bring huge utility to the public. By the measurement of consumer surplus, the residents are willing to pay 414.84 yuan per household per year. The results of non-market valuation show that the non-market value of the basin is 6615 million in 2012. The average non-market value of virtual water trade footprint for the four crops is 192 million yuan during the five years.(3) The empirical results of influences on non-market value of virtual water trade footprint show that: firstly, social status of residents and their environmental cognitions have positive influence on the willingness to pay. Age and whether to be country farmers have negative influence. Male respondents would like to pay more than the female significantly. Income of respondents has no significant influence on their willingness to pay. Secondly, social and economic factors are the main factors influencing virtual water trade footprint in the Wei river basin in Shaanxi province, and the natural factor influences relatively weekly.Based on the results and conclusions, the thesis proposes some suggestions, which aim to lead to virtual water trade and water resource allowcation policies. The suggestions includes improving the mechanism for non-market valuation of water resources, guiding the residents to join in the water management on the view of public participation, establishing the plans for virtual water trade strategies for the Wei River basin, and improving the water resource allowcation policies for the basin.
Keywords/Search Tags:virtual water trade, non-market value, willingness to pay, crops, the Wei River basin
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