A Discussion on Water Resources Depletion Cost in Hai River Basin

The cost of resources depletion and environment degradation are core contents in Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA), and was difficult to be evaluated at present. This paper aimed to do some researches on evaluating depletion cost for water resources, which important resources for economic and social development. Based on the research of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW) of China in recent years, this study define the concept of water resources depletion cost (CWRD), and proposes a method for calculating CWRD. According to the commodity attribute of water resources, water resources could be priced by its shadow price (SP) in the incomplete water market, and CWRD should be quantity of water resources depletion (WRD) times shadow price of water. Meanwhile, the approach was applied to estimate the CWRD in Haihe river basin. The result shows that depletion cost of surface water, shallow groundwater and deep groundwater analyzed separately would be more reasonable since their difference of renewability was considered. And the CWRD is about 1.5% of GDP in Haihe River Basin. The process of water resources development and utilization not only promote economic development, but also influence natural water cycle and lead to stock value of water resources decrease. The method for calculating CWRD will complement the study of value accounts in SEEA and to quantify the sustainability of water resources utilization.