Assessing the enviromental externalities of excessive groundwater withdrawals using the choice experiment method ‒ A case study of Kerman, Iran

Abstract

The main sources of water supply in the Kerman province of Iran are groundwater resources. In recent years, the over-exploitation of groundwater has decreased the water table and created environmental externalities. The reduction of groundwater reserves, reduction of vegetation, loss of plant and animal diversity, soil erosion and an increase in the potential for flooding in the area are some of the adverse environmental externalities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the externalities caused by the excessive withdrawals of groundwater from the Orzooiyeh plain in the Kerman province in Iran. In order to do this, the preferences of the people in this area were studied and the values of the residents’ willingness to pay to improve the environmental attributes of the Orzooiyeh plain was extracted using the choice experiment method and conditional logit model. The results showed that the mean figure of the total households' WTP for the restoration and protection of the groundwater resources in order for it to return to the situation before the onset of externality, was 148259.1 USD annually. The results provided an argument in the debate on the new policy recommendation for groundwater withdrawals and helped to promote the ecosystem services of groundwater resources.