Description
Water quality degradation and water scarcity are two serious problems, and water resources management related to those problems usually involves conflicts. In the absence of market and exclusive property rights, those conflicts are unavoidable. Game theory is an appropriate approach to simulate and resolve such conflicts. The overall objective of this book is to develop a practical methodology and mechanism to promote the maximization of public welfare from a socio-economic and environmental perspective using game theory. There are three main goals: 1) to use game theory to illustrate and analyze phenomena of water resources management, 2) to set up non-cooperative and cooperative game theoretic simulation models of water conflicts in a river basin, and 3) to apply the game theoretic simulation approach into water conflicts involved in the Hanjiang River Basin (HRB) in China. The game theoretic simulation approach and results benefit not only different groups of water stakeholders, but also decision makers to make policies on water quantity allocation, water quality protection, water pricing as well as ecological compensation.
