@article{Hearnshaw:97265,
      recid = {97265},
      author = {Hearnshaw, Edward J.S. and Cullen, Ross},
      title = {The Sustainability and Cost-Effectiveness of Water Storage  Projects on Canterbury Rivers: The Opihi River Case},
      address = {2010-08},
      number = {1168-2016-93202},
      pages = {37},
      year = {2010},
      abstract = {There is an increasing demand for water resources in the  Canterbury region. The
impact of this demand has lead to  unacceptable minimum river flows, which has
resulted in  adverse affects to river ecology. In an effort to resolve  this problem water
storage projects have gained  considerable attention. However, in order to consider  all
values of the impact of water storage projects, a  systematic way of implementing an
ecosystem services  approach is developed. This ecosystem services  approach
coupled with various appropriate analytical  methods are developed for the purposes
of evaluating the  cost-effectiveness of water storage projects and the  sustainability of
river systems impacted by water storage  projects. For the purposes of evaluating  the
cost-effectiveness of water storage projects it is  argued that cost utility analysis
should be applied through  an ecosystem services index, which is constructed from
the  aggregation of normalized indicators that represent each  ecosystem service and
preferential weights for each  ecosystem service. The evaluation of sustainability  is
considered both according to its weak and strong  definitions. Weak sustainability is
evaluated by a  non-declining ecosystem services index over time.  Strong
sustainability is evaluated by the elicitation of  threshold levels or safe minimum
standards where an  ecosystem service, as represented by an indicator, should  not
pass below. These analytical methods developed are  subsequently applied to the
Opihi River, which is a river  system located in Canterbury that has been
hydrologically  modified and impounded by the Opuha Dam scheme. The  application
of the analytical methods to the Opihi River  provides a few preliminary results.
Further data collection  is required to fully determine the cost-effectiveness of  the
Opuha Dam and the sustainability of the Opihi River  impacted by the dam scheme.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/97265},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.97265},
}