Biography:

Received the Ph.D. degree in 1991 at the Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, U.K. in 1991. Currently hold the position of Professor of environmental economics, Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Alexandria, Egypt. Selected by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change as a Leader Author for the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change. Worked between 2000 and 2008, as an Advisor, to Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) for the Socio-Economics for Sustainable Development Program. Worked as a consultant to a number of, environment-related research projects in a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, sponsored by various donors including UNDP, UNEP, EC, IDRC (Canada), DANIDA and IFAD. Conducted a number of research papers in the fields of environmental and urban socioeconomic assessments and economics of the environment. The research papers cover topics on economic feasibility of solid waste management, economic valuation, economic feasibility of solar energy, vulnerability and adaptation to impacts of climate change and socioeconomic assessment of urban areas.

Abstract:

The management of water resources, which is a vital resource for life and human development, represent one of the most difficult issues facing policy and decision makers in Arab countries as they attempt to manage and allocate them between different sectors and users. This is partly due to the complexity surrounding water issues that involve not only various know-how technical solutions, but also socioeconomic aspects that need to be taken into account in order to ensure that proposed actions are not only financially viability but also economic efficiency. The typical key economic question is: are resources being optimally allocated and utilized efficiently? The answer to this question in the case of marketed goods and services exchanged in the markets, employ market prices which provide signals to guide producers and consumers in their decisions. However, water resources, most of the time, are either not traded in the markets or their markets are distorted and thus do not have appropriate market prices to guide decisions and policy making. It should be noted in this context that the value of water does involve not only the financial cost of service provision but also the benefits derived from these resources, for instance, health benefits, social and economic as well as environmental ones. This work in hand intends to highlight the need for deriving an economic value for water resources so that they can assist in making sound allocation and use decisions. For that purpose, we begin by discussing the need for assessing the economic value of water resources, which is the followed by reviewing the concept of total economic value of water resources. Thereafter, various techniques used for assessing such a value are then presented.