Valuing water provisioning services in England: A regionalized application of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting--Ecosystem Accounting framework in the context of Natural Capital Accounting

Abstract This research provides the first comprehensive physical water-use tables for England at the regional level, within the framework of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water). These tables quantify both the flows and values associated with the beneficiaries. The key novelties include: (i) development of ``first experimental quantification" of `green water' associated with agriculture and forestry in England, lacking in official statistics (ii) attributing biomass and forestry provisioning valuation to water-services appropriated by the land under these services, and (iii) first estimates of monetary valuation based on `Non-Tidal Surface Water' and `Ground water' used in other sectors of England, thus going beyond the monetary valuation of `Public water supply' use reported in official statistics. The study also offers insights on discounted valuation of water-provisioning' role in agricultural and forestry produce. Key limitation is lack of condition metrics at regional level, owing to lack of water-quality and water-pollution accounting at the regional scale. Key areas for future investigations include: provision of recent statistics of water-abstraction for England; segregation of recreational services related to water-based cultural service; disclosure of monetary valuations of regional abstraction licenses granted for uses other than `Public Water Supply'; disclosure of methodological reports enabling valuation of water ecosystem services; including information on different discounting rates, time-period; information on return-flows to enable development of water-supply accounts and degradation and/or depletion of local reservoirs; and provision of latest water-use, water-supply, and water-pollution statistics for England and other regions of the UK, namely, Scotland, Wales, and Northern-Ireland, among others.