Coalition Projects to Cut Back Costs of Cleaning Recreational Water Bodies: The Case of Lake Rozkoš

Abstract

Until recently, in order to treat polluted fresh water it has been typical for major polluters to be addressed from larger to smaller and from springs to river estuaries. The implementation of Water Directive 2000/60/EC [1] contributed significantly to solving water pollution problems in the past.The impacts of climate change on water regimes increased living standards and decreased surface water pollution caused by larger and medium-sized polluters have led to a new strategy: the focus is now on the protection of relatively small areas such as drinking water reservoirs, recreational lakes, and parts of watersheds where there is an increased demand for special protection of nature [2][3].The difference from the previous situation is that multiple (rather smaller) polluters that should be addressed to achieve environmental targets are located in relatively small territories. In this situation, it might make sense for polluters to create coalitions and collaborate on common treatment projects (for instance, building common water treatment plants) in order to save on costs of achieving environmental targets.In our paper, we focus on cases in which, in order to achieve the target, all polluters must contribute to certain projects to reduce pollution, which could be an Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 26, No. 4 (2017), [1701][1702][1703][1704][1705][1706][1707][1708][1709][1710][1711][1712][1713][1714] Original Research Coalition Projects to Cut Back Costs of Cleaning Recreational Water Bodies:The Case of Lake Rozkoš AbstractThis paper presents the application of an optimization model developed for Lake Rozkoš, which is located in a sub-basin of the Elbe River basin in Bohemia. Two scenarios for achieving environmental targets (required status of the lake water) were formulated by specialists, together with an assessment of the investment and operating costs of the projects. The optimal solution (investment program) for 41 pollutermunicipalities, where 166 coalitions can be considered (41 individual and 125 joint wastewater treatment plants), was computed. The results suggest that the modelling method presented in this paper has the potential to increase the role of economic considerations in the early stages of planning and decision-making about water treatment programs. In this case, more than 20% of the costs could be saved when selected joint wastewater treatment plants are realized. The approach has the potential to contribute to increasing costeffectiveness of allocation of financial sources from national and European Union sources.Keywords: water pollution, abatement costs, cost-effectiveness, optimization, reverse combinatorial auctions *e-mail: sauer@vse.cz DOI: 10.15244/pjoes/68888 1702 Šauer P., et al. individual project or a common project for two or more polluters. Significant (i.e., almost zero) phosphorus emission reduction to avoid algae and blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria) in recreational and drinking water reservoirs are typical cases of such scenarios.Alternative approaches could be used for cal...

Environmental Modelling with Reverse Combinatorial Auctions: CRAB Software Modification for Sensitivity Analysis

“…This basic model only considers the minimisation of costs, which is complemented by restrictions on environmental standards. In terms of mathematical formulations, inequalities are added that compare the pollution reduction achieved with the required limit values for five specific environmental parameters (5).…”

“…These calculations provided a useful picture for better assessment of potential projects submitted in the region. For more details, see [5].…”

“…The main practical goal of the paper was to contribute to increased cost-effectiveness of waste water cleaning projects [3], [4] in conditions where coalition solutions are possible. The previous research results [1], [2], [5] have shown the need to deepen our research into sensitivity analysis of the resulting optimal solutions. Specifically, in terms of understanding how to study coalition structures in the space between the optimal solution and solutions in the form of individual projects, and how the change of feasible coalition structures changes achieved cost.…”