Nature-based solutions (NBS) can protect, manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems. They are a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to address societal challenges and some natural hazards effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. NBS applications can be easily noticed in circular cities, establishing an urban system that is regenerative and accessible. This paper aims to offer a review on NBS for urban water management from the literature and some relevant projects running within the COST Action ‘Implementing nature-based solutions for creating a resourceful circular city’. The method used in the study is based on a detailed tracking of specific keywords in the literature using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, ScienceDirect and Scopus. Based on this review, three main applications were identified: (i) flood and drought protection; (ii) the water-food-energy nexus; and (iii) water purification. The paper shows that NBS provide additional benefits, such as improving water quality, increasing biodiversity, obtaining social co-benefits, improving urban microclimate, and the reduction of energy consumption by improving indoor climate. The paper concludes that a systemic change to NBS should be given a higher priority and be preferred over conventional water infrastructure.

This article examines the impact of product, process and organisational innovations on two alternative dimensions of business performance: finance and operations. Two indicators capture financial performance: sales increase and production cost reduction. Operational firm performance is captured by two alternative indicators: productive capacity augmentation and quality improvement of product/service provided by the firm. Using a wide-ranging sample of Spanish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), our findings highlight the significant impact of innovation upon both these dimensions of business performance, although they differ regarding the type of innovation and the performance indicator considered. Furthermore, our results indicate that the relationship between innovation choices in SMEs and business performance should be analysed from a multi-dimensional approach. These findings reveal significant implications for innovation policies and strategies for SMEs.

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Water taxation in European Union (EU) countries is adapted to local conditions and institutional trajectories and contains a variety of taxes and tariffs to finance water services and induce a higher use efficiency. After having clarified certain concepts, this work offers an overview of water taxes and tariffs charged for agricultural water use in several European Union member states, both in water-abundant areas and in water-scarce regions. Mediterranean countries, such as France, Portugal, Italy and Spain, have implemented different tax systems on agricultural water abstractions to recover the costs of the regulation, storage, and management of basin-level water services with various levels of cost recovery in accordance with the provision by the Water Framework Directive. France, Portugal, and Italy have implemented an abstraction tax applied to any water source (surface and groundwater) as an instrument to induce water saving and internalize environmental and resource costs in the irrigation sector. Despite these efforts, current taxation remains very low in the European context. On the other hand, Northern European countries (including the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark) have no fiscal instruments related to agricultural abstractions (neither for surface nor for groundwater resources).

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The present study analyzes the empirical evidence of impacts of water saving investments (irrigation modernization) in Spain in the period 1995-2015 resuting in XXX milllion ha modernized with a public subsidy around 50% and an average cost of 6000 EUR/ha. The negative effect of the measure have been an increase of energy consumptio and the water cost. The positive effects have been: increase in productivity of land, labour and water, generallized volumetric billing, substitution of commodity for high value crops, improved working conditions, improved water quality as return flows decrease chemical and salt exported trough retun flows and increased water supply guarantee. Consumption rebound effect has been hetereogeneous as the result of three factors: ex-post limitation to irrigated area expansion, ex.post water allocation cutback and ex-ante existence of deficit irrigation. Finally the positive effects mentioned seems to pay off the invetsment with negative outcome of increased energy and the obligation to maintain an strict policy controlling irrigated are expansion and reducing water rights to avoid a possible rebound effect.

This research paper analyzes the economics of deficit irrigation based on the use of subjective estimates of the crop yield-water relationship to determine water supply in irrigated olive groves. Interviewed farmers were asked to give three estimates for the yield-water relationship as a function of water supply (full irrigation, usual deficit irrigation and extreme deficit irrigation). Those responses are contrasted with the actual irrigation dose and the results appear to support the hypothesis that a majority of farmers use deficit irrigation as a strategy that maximizes the value of limited water input rather than the conventional microeconomic behavior of maximizing the return to land.