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SOCIO‐ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING 1
Author(s) -
Biswas Asit K.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1973.tb01797.x
Subject(s) - constraint (computer aided design) , water resources , process (computing) , environmental economics , order (exchange) , management science , risk analysis (engineering) , public participation , operations research , computer science , business , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , ecology , finance , public administration , political science , biology , operating system
Historically, the main objective of water resources development has been economic efficiency, and the technique for its evaluation has been benefit‐cost analysis. Gradually other objectives have emerged, and these in order of their emergence are regional income redistribution, environmental quality and social well‐being. These multi‐objectives have given rise to multifarious problems, and have made the planning process much more complex than ever before. The different objectives are not mutually exclusive, and, hence, contributions to one can only be made at the expense of others. Trade‐off studies between different objectives are difficult to make. It is suggested that one way to overcome this difficulty could be to design a system to perform optimally in terms of one objective, subject to a specified level of performance of the other, which in effect becomes a constraint. The paper also discusses the pros and cons of the desirability of public participation in our decision‐making processes, and the necessity of developing social sciences models to aid water planning and management.