Environmental Water Price Based on Water Environment Capacity and Ecological Water Consumption: A Case Study of Hefei

Abstract

With the development and reform of water price policy, the most common view is that the total cost of water price can reflect the tradable traits of water resources, which can enhance the water use efficiency and achieve water resources sustainable utilization. Besides in actual pricing operation, from the angle of protection cost, water price characterizes the cost of controlling pollution and protecting water environment. Based on the two factors of water environment capacity and ecological water consumption embodied by the environment water price, this paper puts forward an effective environmental water price calculation model based on three elements of sewage treatment fee, ecological water price and water quality maintenance fee. And this paper takes the data of Hefei as an example, calculates reasonable environmental price, comparing which with the existing price, and finds the main existing problem which needs to be solved urgently in management.

Current Status of and Suggestions on Sewage Treatment Fees in China

“…In January 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the "Notice on Formulating and Adjusting Issues Related to Sewage Treatment Fee Standards". This series of policies established the fundamental framework for the implementation of dual-line budgeting in urban sewage treatment fee management across China [13,14]. The current status of sewage treatment fees in major cities in China is shown in Figure 3 [15].…”

A Review of Water Environmental Capacity Calculation

“…The application scenarios of the major water quality models are briefly summarized in Table 1 [10,21,22]. Water quality objectives, diffusion, assimilation, self-purification and others are determining factors of water environmental capacity [24]. The basic equation of water environmental capacity can be represented as follows [10,24]:…”

“…In general, the right side of Eq. 2represents water dilution capacity and water self-purification capacity [24].…”

“…(2) and Eq. 3, it can be seen that there are two vital coefficients, K and R, in water environmental capacity calculation as follows: 1) the K represents the self-purification capacity of a water body [24] and 2) the R indicates the degree of absorption or release of pollutants by a water body and is difficult to determine. Both K and R would affect the results of water quality simulation.…”