Water Economics and Policy Journal: Call for Papers for a Special Issue

Special Issue on Economic Impact of Climate Change on the Water Sector in MENA and Northern Mediterranean Countries

Guest Editor:
Slim Zekri (Sultan Qaboos University, Oman)
Email: Slim@squ.edu.om

Climate change in MENA countries as well as Northern Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Southern France) has already made an evident impact affecting rain-fed agriculture as well as surface water reservoirs, aquifers’ natural recharge and cities. Crop varieties and tree species currently under cultivation in the Southern Mediterranean would progressively be appropriate in the North Mediterranean farming systems for adaptation. Rain is becoming more sporadic and more intensive with fewer number of rainy days, higher temperatures and longer summer months, leading to crop area shrinkage and increased need for water desalination. Hence, the increased water scarcity is affecting all the economic sectors (agriculture, water utilities, industry, tourism and the environment) and driving a higher demand for water, including for adaptation purposes. Domestic urban and rural water are under increased stress/variability and water service failures/interruptions are becoming more frequent causing social discontent. Although quantitative technical-physical climate impacts are quite abundant, the lack of economic value tags attached to such studies makes them less valuable for policy consideration and undertaking the necessary shifts and adaptations. Previous economic impact studies based their adaptation measures on deficit irrigation for instance, however data is showing that aquifers are under high stress and cannot be used for such a purpose. Similarly, surface water reservoirs’ storage capacity is negatively affected by siltation caused by the more torrential sporadic intensive rains reducing the supply of water and increasing the supply uncertainty. This special issue of Water Economics and Policy aims to bridge this gap.

Potential topics/issues include, but are not limited to:

• Assessing the economic losses caused by extreme events (droughts; floods; extreme temperatures) on water for cities and agriculture;
• Economic impact of climate change on rain-fed and irrigated agriculture and adaptation measures;
• Economic impact of climate change on dams’ storage capacity based on observations (during the period 1990–2022). Dams’ siltation and water value taking into account rain intensity and periodicity;
• Adaptation measures and investments in the water sector as a response to climate change;
• Impacts of climate change on water policies and institutions;
• MENA and Northern Mediterranean countries’ policy adaptation measures and investments undertaken in the past 20 years in the water/agricultural sectors;
• Case studies of successful adaptation strategies in the water sector;
•  International programs and international aid and their effect on water sector adaptation to climate change on the MENA region;
• Assessment of the European programs oriented toward water sector climate adaptation for Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries; and
•  Investments in R&D for water climate adaptation.

Timeline and submissions
Manuscript submission deadline (via Editorial Manager): July 31, 2023.

All submitted papers are expected to fully comply with Water Economics and Policy journal standards and are subject to regular review procedures. Papers should not have been published previously in any other journal (print or electronic format). All submissions should follow the journal’s Submission Guidelines found here: https://www.worldscientific.com/page/wep/submission-guidelines.

About the Guest Editor
Dr Slim Zekri is Professor in the Dept. Nat. Res. Econ. at Sultan Qaboos University. He earned his PhD in Ag. Econ. and Quantitative Methods from the University of Cordoba, Spain. His main research interests are in Water Economics & Policy; Agricultural Economics and Environmental Economics. In 2017 he won the Research and Innovation Award in Water Science from the Sultan Qaboos Higher Center for Culture & Science. He is Associate Editor of the journal of Water Economics and Policy. He worked as a consultant for a range of national and international agencies. He is member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the FAO’s Globally Interesting Agricultural Heritage Systems since 2018. In 2020 he edited a book titled Water Policy in MENA Countries published by Springer.

https://www.worldscientific.com/page/wep/callforpapers08