Ecosystem services & conservation (France) · 2013-04-16 · 16 3.2 Flood Control Background •...

Evaluating Economic Policy Instruments for

Sustainable Water Management in Europe

The research leading to these results has received funding from the

European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) /

grant agreement n° 265213 – project EPI-WATER “Evaluating Economic

Policy Instrument for Sustainable Water Management in Europe”.

WP4 Ex-ante Evaluation

Ecosystem services &

conservation (France)

PES schemes in La

Bassée-Voulzie

Madrid, 6 February 2013

Pierre Defrance, ACTeon

Adriana Raveau, ACTeon

Alexandra Rossi, ACTeon

Pedro Andrés Garzón Delvaux,

ACTeon

1

Content

1. The Seine-Normandie river basin context

2. Focus on the Bassée-Voulzie Hydrographic Unit (HU)

3. Issues and existing instruments

3.1 Nitrate pollution

3.2 Flood control

3.3 Biodiversity

4. Methodology and tools used

5. PES design

6. Conclusions

2


3


Danone research team (2011)

Surface and Population

• The SN river basin covers about 100 000 km2 (18% of the national

surface)

• Its population is 17.3 million

o 55% of the population is concentrated in 2% of the territory

o Highly concentrated in the Paris metropolitan area & along the water

courses

4



Agriculture

• There are more than 100 000 farms

o Covering 6 millions hectares (60% of the SN surface)

o 15% of the farms in FR & 25% of the economic weight of French farming

o It employs 145 000 persons

o It generates around 150 000 jobs in the agri-food industry

• Cereals represent around 50% of the Seine cultures

• Permanent meadows around 20%

5



Main issues

• Water quality

o Agriculture is the main source of nitrates (75%) and pesticides (90%)

o 259 drinking water abstractions sites had to be abandoned between 1993

and 2001because of nitrates

o Nitrate concentration in groundwater increased by 0,64 mg/l/year (between

1970 and 2000)

o But also point source pollution (sewage and industry)…

6



Main issues

• Water quantity

• Hydromorphology: not really tackled by the first round of WFD

What about an integrated approach ?

• First round of WFD looked at quality and quantity

• But, an ecosystem approach emerged (Millennium

Ecosystem Assessment, 2004)

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2. Focus on the Bassée-Voulzie Hydrographic Unit (HU)

8

2. Focus on the Bassée-Voulzie HU

Land cover

• Agriculture: 75% of the total

area

• Woodland and waters: 18%

• Urban area: 6%

o 100 000 inhabitants

o Only 8 cities over 2000


Bassée-Voulzie HU

• Surface: 1700 km2

• Three main issues

o Water quality (diffuse pollution)

o Flood control

o Biodiversity preservation

9


Agriculture

• Based on agricultural census (2010)

o Agricultural land represents 154 000 hectares (decreased by 2% since

2000)

o 1537 farms (decreased by 15% since 2000)

o Crops types : cereals (wheat, barley and maize) represent 60% of

agricultural land; oilseed 16%


Cereals

92 569 60%

Oilseeds25 201 16%

Protein crops9 113 6%

Fibres1 555

1%

Industrial crop10 731

7%

Forage area

6 298 4%

Potatoes1 597

1%

Vines

844 1%

Fallow5 328 4%

Type of culture (% of total surface)

o Grassland (permanent and

temporary) cover 5600 hectares

10


Agriculture

• Based on agricultural census (2010)

o Agricu


11

3. Issues and existing instruments

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3 main aquifers

High pressure on water

quantity and water

quality (pesticides &

nitrates)

High pressure on water

quality (pesticides &

nitrates)

Quantity and quality

must be preserved

for future needs in

drinking water

Drinking water

50% groundwater

50% surface water Voulzie Durteint

Dragon

13



But also:

158 municipalities

100 000 inhabitants

Water abstraction = 5,2 million m3

Water consumption = 3,9 million m3

14



Existing instruments

• Since 1991, the Nitrate Directive

o The whole area is classified as “vulnerable area”

o Reduction of fertilisation

o Good agricultural practices

• 1991: Ferti’Mieux Programme

o Voluntary improved fertilisation experiments: farmers received a subsidy

per hectare when the level of nitrates remained low at the end of the crop

season

o Criticized for its low efficiency

• 2007: Agri-environmental measures

o ... Aiming to reduce pesticides at the beginning

o 5 years contracts

o Compensation for any losses of income

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36 farmers have been

engaged

40% of eligible agricultural

surface

AEM are limited to a small area: the

Voulzie catchment (10 000 hectares of

agricultural land)

All farmers re-

engaged in 2012

BUT :

- No evaluation yet …

-Cultural system has not really been adapted: what will happen after 10 years?

- Agri-environmental measures focusing on nitrates were only introduced in

2012 (few engagement due to high level of constraints)

Could PES schemes

be an option (flexibility, inventiveness) ?

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3.2 Flood Control

Background

• Floods represent a major risk

on the Seine basin

o Exceptional floods would

affect 4 to 5 million persons

o Combined effect of peak flows

from the Yonne and the Seine

rivers

o 1910: EUR 1.6 billion costs

• Construction of Dams

o 4 dams during the last

decades

o Storing capacity of 800 million

m3

• Contribution of the Bassée

floodplain

o 65 million m3 (at least) Danone research team (2011)

17

3.2 Flood Control

• Three different areas on the Bassée floodplain

o 1 – Downstream: heavily modified sector,

equiped to allow large tonnage navigation

There is a project of “reservoir” for a

storage capacity of 55 million m3

(EUR 495 million investment cost)

decrease of the water level of

25 cm in Paris 1

2

3

o 2 – the center: less modified, but

impacted by mining activity (for the extraction of alluvial gravel) that will

increase in the future (+15% in 2030)

+ A project of large tonnage navigation (VNF)

o 3 – Upstream: preserved area that has kept its natural functioning

(relevant for frequent floods) – agricultural land regularly flooded

What could be the contribution of agricultural land in the flood control process?

Reduction of runoff?

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3.3 Biodiversity


• Several protected areas

o Including a National Nature

Reserve (& project of

another NNR)

• Dynamic conservation atlas

of biodiversity

o still in progress

o Raise awareness but not

Restrictive

• Agri-environmental Measures

on Natura 2000 sites

o Being developed

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4. Methodology and tools used

20 20

Key literature review

and field work

Characterisation of

farms Modelling

Optimization

Farm

Economic

model

Nitrates

tax

Crop agronomic and hydrological

models

Environmental

outcomes Economic

outcomes

Institution, policy

implementability

Distributional

effects and

social equity

Workshop 2 :

farmers

Assessment report of

PES schemes

Workshop 1a/b :

local/non local

advisory group

Uncertainty

4.1 Global perspective & Assessment criteria

PES

Digital elevation model

Expert judgment

Transaction costs

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4.2 An economic optimisation model

Typology of farms and activities


Preliminary results

Cereals

95 996 62%Crops (root crops)

22 245 14%

Crops (without root-crops)23 271

15%

Vineyards

3 733 2%

Grazing livestok breeding

888

1%

Mixed cropping4 199 3% Mixed crops

livestock3 752 3%

Crop

System

Type A1

Type A2

Type A3

Type B

Farm types

(optimized)

Wheat, maize, …

Interviews

With farmers

Type of soil

W1 W2

Inputs (nitrate)

W11 W12 W21 …

Activities to be used in the

economic model Maximization of an objective function (gross

margin) for farm group types under constraints

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4.3 Using agronomic and hydrological models for nitrates


STICS (crop growth model)

• Developped by a french research institute (INRA) since 1996

• Existing nitrogen response fonctions (yield & nitrate emission

fonctions), considering

o Climat conditions

o Type of soil

o Agricultural practices

For each

Crop (W1)

W11 W12 W13 W14

• Two types of coupling

o functions

o Coefficients linking nitrate

inputs and yield + nitrate

emission

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4.3 Using agronomic and hydrological models for nitrates


MODCOU (hydrological model)

• Developed by PIREN-Seine (research programme)

• Allows estimating the nitrate transfer from root zone toward the

groundwater at the Seine river basin level

• Represents the three major aquifers (Eocene, Oligocene, Chalk)

with a spatial resolution varying from 1 to 8 km2

(1) Aggregation of farm type Nitrates emission on sub-areas

(2) Distribution of total emission to MODCOU basic unit

(3) Calculation of nitrate concentration in aquifers

=> Calculation of benefits

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5. PES design

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5. PES Design


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6. Conclusions

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6. Conclusions

Institutional and practical barriers

• Pooling financial and human ressources might not be easy

• Preventive approach might not be cost-effective

• Stakeholders’ fears: time horizon for payments and multiplication of

producers

• Defining beneficiaries is challenging, especially for flood control and

biodiversity

• What would be the best scale to define PES schemes ?

• How to reduce transaction costs (role of intermediaries) ?

Next steps

• Calibrate the economic model to get more information on potential

changes of agricultural practices

• Assess the contribution of agriculture to flood control

• Organize a meeting with farmers to share results and get

their opinion (acceptability)


Thanks! Contact: Pierre Defrance (ACTeon), [email protected]

The research leading to these results has received funding from

the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / grant agreement n° 265213 –

Project EPI-WATER “Evaluating Economic Policy Instrument for Sustainable Water Management in Europe”.

Ecosystem services & conservation (France) · 2013-04-16 · 16 3.2 Flood Control Background •...

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