Non-monetary incentives to increase enrollment in payments for environmental services
2023 - European Review of Agricultural Economics
Payments for Environmental Services (PESs) are increasingly used to foster farmers' adoption of greener practices, but their effectiveness is often undermined by low enrollment. In a large randomized field experiment (N = 20,000), we test several non-monetary incentives to increase enrollment into …
Can collective conditionality improve agri-environmental contracts? From lab to field experiments
2023 - Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies
Individual subsidy payments that are conditional on a collective contribution threshold could provide a viable resolution to the insufficient and dispersed adoption of agri-environmental contracts aiming at attaining environmental quality targets. Indeed, in a decontextualized laboratory experiment…
Analysing practices, social representations and behaviours of socio-hydro systems' actors
2022 -
This working paper presents and discusses the approaches and methods used by the PRECOS Team of the G-Eau research unit to analyse practices, social representations and behaviours of sociohydro systems' actors. Four groups of methods are presented: 1) surveys, interviews, and focus groups, 2) sta…
Large-scale participation in policy design: citizen proposals for rural development in Tunisia
2022 - EURO Journal on Decision Processes
More and more literature and practice recommend involving the public at the early stages of the policy cycle, i.e. issue identification, definition of the policy objectives and policy design. Policy design involves, among others, identifying solutions, ideas or alternatives which may address the po…
Identify Lao farmers' goals and their ranking using best–worst scaling experiment and scale–adjusted latent class models
2022 - Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
In order to better design more sustainable farming systems, and prepare for the development of multi-criteria farm decision model, we investigate how farmers rank their main goals when making decisions. First, we identified the main goals used by farmers through in-depth interviews with randomly s…
A choice experiment approach to evaluate maize farmers' decision-making processes in Lao PDR
2022 - Journal of Choice Modelling
Sustainable intensification seeks to increase outputs from existing farmland in ways that have a lower environmental impact. An extensive literature has examined the determinants of farmers' adoption of the different agro-ecological cropping systems needed to achieve these goals. However, the far…
Diverse stakeholder perspectives and ecosystem services ranking: Application of the Q-methodology to Hawane Dam and Nature Reserve in Eswatini
2022 - Ecological Economics
This paper uses the Q methodology to identify and analyze the diverse perspectives different stakeholders held about Hawane Dam and Nature Reserve (HDNR) wetland ecosystem services (ESS), to guide conservation management actions. Using 72 representative stakeholders to sort 40 statements describin…
Relational quality and uncertainty in common pool water management: an exploratory lab experiment
2021 - Scientific Reports
If there is one certainty for the sustainable management of water resources is that facing uncertainty is an unavoidable matter. A concern that, in addition to the best available scientific knowledge and models, requires deep insights about the socio relational processes that underlie decision-maki…
Are Households Willing to Finance the Cost of Individual Water Supply? Case Study in Central Tunisia
2021 - Water Economics and Policy
In developing countries, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations and the expectations expressed by modern local populations call for universal water access through individual connections (IC), to be achieved by 2030. An ambitious target such as this presents the challenge …
Introducing Nature into Cities or Preserving Existing Peri-Urban Ecosystems? Analysis of Preferences in a Rapidly Urbanizing Catchment
2021 - Sustainability
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly being promoted as a means to address societal and environmental challenges, especially flood risk reduction. In the context of rapidly urbanizing catchments, NBS can take part of the development of sustainable cities, either by conserving peri-urban eco…
Combining narrative scenarios, local knowledge and land-use change modelling for integrating soil erosion in a global perspective
2021 - Land Use Policy
Mediterranean soil resources are heavily affected by water erosion. There is a need for anticipating the potential impact of land-use change at the catchment scale, considering a range of contrasted possible changes, in order to prepare a relevant adaptation strategy. While participatory scenario a…
Farmers Follow the Herd : A Theoretical Model on Social Norms and Payments for Environmental Services
2021 - Environmental and Resource Economics
The economic literature on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) has studied exten- sively the behavioural factors that prevent farmers from signing PES contracts, even when the payments exceed the expected opportunity costs. This article provides a theoretical model of the role played by the i…
Cycling along a River: New access, new values?
2020 - Sustainability
The ViaRhôna is an 815 km cycle route running along the Rhône River from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea. We examine the influence of this type of cycle route on the relationship between route users (including the local population, itinerant cyclists and foreign tourists) and the river landsca…
Distinct and combined impacts of climate and land use scenarios on water availability and sediment loads for a water supply reservoir in northern Morocco
2020 - International Soil and Water Conservation Research
The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of climate and land use changes on water availability and sediment loads for a water supply reservoir in northern Morocco using data-intensive simulation models in a data-scarce region. Impacts were assessed by comparing the simulated water and…
Developing Substitution Resources as Compensation for Reduced Groundwater Entitlements: The Case of the Poitou Marshes (France)
2020 -
This chapter describes the groundwater management policy implemented in the Poitou marshes, a 100,000 ha wetland located on the Atlantic coast in Western France. Similarly to other French basins, irrigated agriculture has rapidly developed since the 1980s, mainly based on groundwater exploitation. …
Contrasting effects of information sharing on common-pool resource extraction behavior: Experimental findings
2020 - PloS one
This paper experimentally investigates the impact of different information sharing mechanisms in a common-pool resource game, with a view to finding a mechanism that is both efficient and inexpensive for the managing agency. More precisely, we compare the observed extraction levels produced as a re…
A classroom experimental game to improve the understanding of asymmetric common-pool resource dilemmas in irrigation water management
2020 - International Review of Economics Education
We describe a classroom experimental game focusing on some key economic concepts surrounding water management. The game shows the case of an asymmetric common-pool resource: an irrigation system where players represent irrigating farmers. Dilemmas between individual and collective interests arise, …
Waste water reuse in France - Social perception of an unfamiliar practice
2020 - Water Science and Technology: Water Supply
This article presents the results of a local survey conducted in a French wine-growing region where the public authorities were considering irrigating fields and green spaces with treated wastewater. 845 potential consumers were interviewed face-to-face close to their purchasing place. The majority…
Exploring the Potential of Groundwater Markets in Agriculture: Results of a Participatory Evaluation in Five French Case Studies
2020 - Water Economics and Policy
We used a participatory foresight method for assessing if, and how, groundwater markets could be incorporated into local groundwater management policies. We propose an institutional setup adapted to the French water policy context, with a cap and trade scenario introducing groundwater markets in th…
Sustainable groundwater management in France and Australia: setting extraction limits, allocating rights and reallocation
2020 -
This chapter briefly introduces the main policy developments from both France and Australia regarding groundwater management and their particular approach to setting caps, allocating rights and allowing reallocations. It then presents the objectives of the book and explores the book's contribution…
Farmers' preference for cropping systems and the development of sustainable intensification: a choice experiment approach
2020 - Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies
Sustainable intensification (SI) of farming systems aims to increase food production from existing farmland in ways that have a lower environmental impact and maintain the food production capacity over time. SI embraces a set of diverse agricultural technologies that share a common feature: their a…
Water Quality and Water Related Ecosystem Services in the Olifants in South Africa: A qualitative approach
2020 -
The report documents the consensus and distinct views about the water quality and the ecosystem services provided by water?related ecosysystems tems in the Olifants.
Context matters: Agronomic field monitoring and participatory research to identify criteria of farming system sustainability in South-East Asia
2020 - Agricultural Systems
In the mountainous areas of South-East Asia, family farms have shifted from subsistence to input-intensified and market-oriented maize-based farming systems, resulting in a substantial increase in farm income, but also in new environmental threats: deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, he…
Mapping economic feasibility of managed aquifer recharge
2020 - Water
Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) constitutes a potential and promising solution to deal with several water management issues: water shortage, water level depletion, groundwater pollution, and saline water intrusion. Among others, the proper siting and cost evaluation of such a solution constitutes so…
La gestion des ressources en eau souterraine : Six situations du bassin méditerranéen analysées sous l'angle de l'économie néo-institutionnelle et de la théorie des contrats
2020 -
Les prélévements en eau souterraine ont triplé en 50 ans et on estime que 20% des aquiféres sont aujourd'hui surexploités é travers le monde. Les raisons de cette surexploitation sont relativement bien connues et tiennent é la caractéristique de "bien commun'' de l'eau souterraine.Deux cadres d'ana…
Building new kinds of meta-models to analyse experimentally (companion) modelling processes in the field of natural resource management
2019 - Environmental Modelling & Software
In order to better manage complex situations of natural resource management, models are built in a participative way, involving the stakeholders of these situations in participatory modelling activities. The impact that this activity of participatory modelling has on the stakeholders is at the hear…
Can we nudge farmers into saving water? Evidence from a randomised experiment
2019 - European Review of Agricultural Economics
We test whether social comparison nudges can promote water-saving behaviour among farmers as a complement to traditional CAP measures. We conducted a randomised controlled trial among 200 farmers equipped with irrigation smart meters in South-West France. Treated farmers received weekly information…
Valuing a diversity of ecosystem services: The way forward to protect strategic groundwater resources for the future?
2019 - Ecosystem Services
This paper demonstrates the usefulness of valuing a diversity of ecosystem services for groundwater protection. It argues that improving the understanding of local stakeholders regarding the benefits that strategic groundwater preservation for future generations can bring to their territories is a …
Transboundary Water Resources for People and Nature: Challenges and Opportunities in the Olifants River Basin
2019 -
his paper proposes that transboundary water governance needs to become an essential input to sustainable governance of protected natural reserves. The paper reviews the challenges and opportunities for such governance mechanisms, and identifies the factors behind successful practices. Successful tr…
Le compteur communicant : perception des irrigants. Le cas du bassin du Louts
2019 - TSM (Techniques, Sciences et Methodes)
Smart meters are presented as a technological innovation that can benefit both users and managers of a limited resource such as water: they provide irrigators with real-time information about their water withdrawals, helping them to control their water extraction, and facilitating water sharing whe…
Urban consumer perceptions of food in Myanmar: between tradition and modernity
2019 -
Fourniture d'information et consentement à payer l'eau d'irrigation dans les Groupements de Développement Agricole tunisiens : Une étude par l'économie expérimentale
2018 -
Irrigation water is a crucial resource for economic and social development in Tunisia. In a context of decentralization and State devolution, the local associations for agricultural development or ‘Groupements de Développement Agricole (GDA)’ manage today a large share of irrigation water in the co…
Participatory scenario planning for sustainable irrigated agriculture when actors seldom communicate: an experiment in Morocco
2018 - International Journal of Water Resources Development
In Morocco, agricultural activities based on groundwater use increasingly face risks of aquifer overdraft and market saturation. However, farmers and public organizations responsible for agriculture and water resources rarely communicate to identify how these risks could be overcome. A participator…
Smart metering: A water-saving solution? Consider communication strategies and user perceptions first. Evidence from a French case study
2018 - Environmental Modelling & Software
Smart water meters are increasingly being installed by French water utility companies and made available to users free of charge. However, households are not taking advantage of this technology in spite of the benefits it theoretically offers. This article investigates factors that may explain this…
Attributes determining consumer preference for organic rice in Bangkok, Thailand
2018 - British Food Journal
Society's preferences for Ecosystem Services from Irrigated Rice Areas: a case study in Northeast Thailand
2018 -
Natural flood management from the farmer's perspective: criteria that affect uptake
2017 - Journal of Flood Risk Management
Internationally, a wide set of measures are being considered to reduce flood risk: natural flood management (NFM) is one of them. NFM includes a broad range of measures that alter, restore or use landscape features to manage flood risk. By working with catchment-wide hydrological and morphological …
Compensating Environmental Losses Versus Creating Environmental Gains : Implications for Biodiversity Offsets
2017 - Ecological Economics
In the economic literature on themotivations underlying voluntary contributions to environmental public goods, little attention is granted to the way the overall objective of the environmental program is framed. A program which contributes to an increase ofenvironmental quality can be perceived dif…
Comment rendre compte de la multiplicité des valeurs des services écosystémiques des hydrosystèmes? Volume 2: Application à l'amont du bassin-versant des Gardons
2017 -
In many catchments of Southern France, the objective of good ecological status for all water bodies in 2015 has led to defining water volumes that can be withdrawn by all uses, including irrigation, without arming aquatic ecosystems and revising corresponding water abstraction authorizations. These…
Comment rendre compte de la multiplicité des valeurs des services écosystémiques des hydrosystèmes? Volume 1: Cadre conceptuel: services écosystémiques, valeurs et méthodes d'évaluation
2017 -
This report deals with the values that people hold for ecosystem services provided by fresh water ecosystems (rivers, streams, aquifers), in a catchment of Southern France, characterized by an imbalance between water demand and available resources, and consequent strong tensions between water uses.…
Quatre ans après: que reste-t-il d'une action de recherche sur une prospective de la gestion d'une nappe côtière face au changement climatique?
2017 - Sciences Eaux Territoires
Dans le cadre de projets de recherche, une démarche prospective participative a été réalisée afin d’explorer les futurs possibles de la gestion des nappes côtières dans le Roussillon en prenant en compte le changement climatique. Quatre ans après la fin de l’exercice, quels en sont les traces et le…
Integrated assessment of economic benefits of groundwater improvement with contingent valuation
2016 -
This chapter investigates the potential and limits of the contingent valuation method for assessing the benefits of groundwater remediation or protection programs. The discussion is based on a review of the literature and on two original contingent valuation surveys conducted in France and in Belgi…
Conception d’un paiement pour services environnementaux en pâturages collectifs. Une expérimentation des choix
2016 - Economie rurale. Agricultures, alimentations, territoires
This paper suggests the use of a choice experiment to guide the design of a payment for environmental services (PES) for collective rangeland management. The empirical implementation was conducted in the M’goun watershed located in South-East of Morocco. Individual acceptability of various conserva…
Social justice and groundwater allocation in agriculture: A French case study
2016 -
This chapter focuses on the design of rules for apportioning limited groundwater resources among agricultural users. It shows that different (often antagonist) conceptions of desirable water allocation rules co-exist within the agricultural community, reflecting farmers’ differences in terms of eco…
Policy instruments for decentralized management of agricultural groundwater abstraction: a participatory evaluation
2015 - Ecological Economics
This paper proposes and analyzes three policy instruments which can be used to enhance farmers' compliance with individual water allocations in a decentralized management context. Three regulation strategies are proposed for the case of groundwater allocations for irrigation: the first relies on ec…
An interdisciplinary modelling framework for selecting adaptation measures at the river basin scale in a global change scenario
2015 - Environmental Modelling and Software
Shaping global change adaptation strategy in water resource systems requires an interdisciplinary approach to deal with the multiple dimensions of the problem. The modelling framework presented integrates climate, economic, agronomic and hydrological scenarios to design a programme of adaptation me…
Influence of context on player behavior: experimental assessment
2014 - Simulation & Gaming
+ Background. This article explores the causal effect of context on players' behavior by using a game based on Cooperative Game Theory (CGT) modified into a coordination experiment. + Aims. This article has two aims: first, to suggest an analytical framework focusing on four attributes (Repe…
Projected impacts of climate change on farmers' extraction of groundwater from crystalline aquifers in South India
2014 - Scientific reports
Local groundwater levels in South India are falling alarmingly. In the semi-arid crystalline Deccan plateau area, agricultural production relies on groundwater resources. Downscaled Global Climate Model (GCM) data are used to force a spatially distributed agro-hydrological model in order to evaluat…
Why pay for nothing? An experiment on a conditional subsidy scheme in a threshold public good game.
2014 - Economics Bulletin
The voluntary provision of public goods can be enhanced by subsidies paid to contributors. However, in the case of threshold public goods, subsidies can be wasted if the public good is not ultimately produced. We therefore test the performance of a conditional subsidy paid to each contributor only …
Defining groundwater remediation objectives with cost-benefit analysis: does it work?
2014 - Water resources management
The use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is increasingly advocated as a tool for supporting water planning decisions, in particular at the local (site) level. This paper questions whether CBA is relevant for evaluating groundwater management options at the scale of large regional aquifers. It highlig…
The role of public participation in encouraging changes in rural land use to reduce flood risk
2014 - Land Use Policy
Changes in rural land use to reduce flood risk are encouraged by governments in many countries, but they may face considerable opposition by land managers. Local participative processes are thought to help overcome opposition. This article presents an evaluation of an intensive participative proces…
Western Pyrenees facing global change: comparison of the effects of climatic and anthropogenic change on water abstractions
2014 - Houille Blanche
Dans les Pyrénées Orientales, la tendance à la décroissance du débit d'étiage des rivières observée au cours des dernières décennies devrait se poursuivre à l'avenir, pouvant accentuer les stress hydriques sur les milieux aquatiques et la compétition entre usages et usagers pour l'accès aux ressour…
An Agent-Based Model to Explore Game Setting Effects on Attitude Change During a Role Playing Game Session
2013 - Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Role playing games (RPGs) can be used as participatory simulation methods for environmental management. However, researchers in the field need to be aware of the influence of the game settings on participants' behavioural patterns and attitudes, before fine tuning the design and use of their games.…