Environmental Economics and Water Resources Management: An International Comparison

The management of water resources is an important tool of environmental economics that is changing from a water-supply to a water-demand system. The importance of such transformation has to be found mainly in the way in which potential conflicts between offstream and instream uses are decided. In this study are presented the potential relationships between two similar cases in two different countries, the Tagliamento River in Italy, and the Deschutes River in the United States, and it is demonstrated that modifications to water allocation system are strongly desirable and would improve protection for instream flow values. After having analyzed the way in which water property rights and water legislation have been managed in both countries, it is concluded that if more weight could be given to the instream uses, particularly to the recreational uses, a more efficient allocation of water resources will be reached.