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Abstract:
Emissions of nutrients from non-point sources such as gardens, agriculture, public open space, sports fields and septic tanks pose an ongoing threat to the ecological health of Western Australia’s Swan Canning river system, a system with high recreational and ecological value to the Perth community.
Due to the nature and diversity of diffuse sources, actions to reduce or mitigate emissions from non-point sources are generally broad or act indirectly on the source(s). These include existing programs such as education of households, soil amendment, removal of septic tanks and investment in constructed wetlands, as well as more radical changes such as banning standard fertilizers. There is a desire to consider the effectiveness of each of these actions in reducing nutrients within a catchment, to better inform allocation of scarce resources.
This presentation will describe the findings of an economic analysis of a catchment-wide approach to reducing nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the Swan-Canning river system. It considers policy and management actions needed for achieving reduction targets.
This research was undertaken by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities as part of Research Project A1.3: Economic incentives and instruments. The published report is available here.
Brief Biography:
Ben White: Ben is an Associate Professor in the School of Agriculture and Environment at UWA. His current research interests are water pollution and environmental policy for mines. He has published two textbooks on environmental economics jointly with Nick Hanley and Jay Shogren.
Maksym Polyakov: Maksym is a Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Environment at UWA. His research includes the economics of environmental conservation, lend use change, urban forestry, and water sensitive urban infrastructure. His research has been published in over 30 journal articles and book chapters.
This is a free session. No rsvp is required.