Integrate Economics with Engineering to Transform Water and Energy in Jordan.
Halaseh, Ayman.
2015
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Abstract: Jordan is a
water and energy poor country, yet consumes 20% of its power resources to provide only a
minimum water allocation for health and hygiene. Sustainable water resources only meet
16% of its domestic and agricultural needs. The Multi-Year Water Allocation Systems
(MYWAS) project developed a deterministic hydrologic-economic optimization model for
water resource allocation in ... read morethe Northern Governorates of Jordan. The model maximizes
system wide net benefits, by increasing the social welfare and reducing energy cost,
subject to a wide range of environmental, engineering and social constraints. The model
was used to evaluate three scales of analysis: (1) alternative water allocation
policies, (2) potential mega-projects, and (3) several proposed infrastructure
improvement plans. The existing water allocation policy is found to result in an
unrealistic and inefficient water allocation, thus an alternative policy is proposed to
reduce the domestic allocation by 30%. An evaluation of proposed mega-projects found
that the Swap project between Jordan and Israel, part of the Red-Dead project, and a
water loss reduction program are attractive alternatives especially when compared to the
Disi conveyance project. An infrastructure improvement plan is also proposed to improve
allocation efficiency. We also found that a 50% reduction of water system losses has a
similar impact to improving the system infrastructure capacity. We also found that the
impact of Syrian refugees has an order of magnitude higher impact on system social
welfare and would cost $450 per person per year, accounting for 7% of GDP. Our long term
goal is to extend the hydrologic-economic model completed for the North of Jordan, to
cover Jordan, and to combine it with similar models for Israel and Palestine, enabling
cooperative strategies for trans-boundary water conflict resolution in the Middle
East.
Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2015.
Submitted to the Dept. of Civil Engineering.
Advisors: Richard Vogel, and Annette Huber-Lee.
Committee: Ujjayant Chakravorty.
Keywords: Environmental economics, Engineering, and Economics.read less - ID:
- 7m01bz06s
- Component ID:
- tufts:21429
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
