The natural endowment of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in the form of land, minerals, and forests, is unparalleled. The right mix of policies has the potential to unleash incentives that could transform the economy. However, transport infrastructure in the DRC is among the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world, and this lack of infrastructure is likely a significant constraint to growth.   Economic Boom or Ecologic Doom? Using Spatial Analysis to Reconcile Road Development with Forest Conservation considerably advances the information that is available to infrastructure planners, and provides methodologies that could be used to make more informed decisions to identify trade-offs between economic growth and environmental endangerment. The approach draws from the state of the art across a variety of disciplines geographic information system (GIS) analysis, spatial econometrics, economic theory, and conservation biology to create an approach that can guide the location and level of investments by estimating benefits and environmental costs at a highly disaggregated spatial scale.   The analysis proceeds in four related phases that combine economic assessments with geospatial analysis. First, transport costs are estimated using GIS techniques. A variety of econometric procedures are then used to determine the economic effects of changing transport costs. Second, highly disaggregated spatial data are used to estimate the effects of roads on forest cover, and the resulting biodiversity that would be at risk from local deforestation. Third, the two spatial estimates are combined to simulate the effects of different policies. Fourth, this simulation results in a series of maps that identify regions where there are large trade-offs between economic and ecological goals.  Overall, the results suggest that the siting of infrastructure needs to consider impacts at the very outset of the planning process. This report presents both new data and new techniques that can be used to identify areas of opportunity, risk, and potential for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) financing. Such upstream planning has been rendered both feasible and cost effective with the availability of geo-referenced information on forest cover and economic data. Economic Boom or Ecologic Doom? provides the data and easily comprehensible maps for such an exercise.

Economic Boom or Ecologic Doom?: Using Spatial Analysis to Reconcile Road Development with Forest Conservation (Directions in Development - Infrastructu)

Damania, Richard

Russ, Jason

Barra, Alvaro Federico

Burnouf, Mathilde

Business & Money

The World Bank

The 21st century will witness the collision of two powerful forces - burgeoning population growth, together with a changing climate. With population growth, water scarcity will proliferate to new areas across the globe. And with climate change, rainfall will become more fickle, with longer and deeper periods of droughts and deluges. This report presents new evidence to advance understanding on how rainfall shocks coupled with water scarcity, impacts farms, firms, and families. On farms, the largest consumers of water in the world, impacts are channeled from declining yields to changing landscapes. In cities, water extremes especially when combined with unreliable infrastructure can stall firm production, sales, and revenue. At the center of this are families, who feel the impacts of this uncertainty on their incomes, jobs, and long-term health and welfare. Although a rainfall shock may be fleeting, its consequences can become permanent and shape the destiny of those who experience it. Pursuing business as usual will lead many countries down a 'parched path' where droughts shape destinies. Avoiding this misery in slow motion will call for fundamental changes to water policy around the globe. Building resilience to rainfall variability will require using different policy instruments to address the multifaceted nature of water. A key message of this report is that water has multiple economic attributes, each of which entail distinct policy responses. If water is not managed more prudently--from source, to tap, and back to source--the crises observed today will become the catastrophes of tomorrow.

Uncharted Waters: The New Economics of Water Scarcity and Variability

Moore, Scott

Desbureaux, Sébastien

Hyland, Marie

Islam, Asif

Rodella, Aude-Sophie

Zaveri, Esha

Economics

Water quantity--too much in the case of floods, or too little in the case of droughts--grabs public attention and the media spotlight. Water quality--being predominantly invisible and hard to detect--goes largely unnoticed. Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis presents new evidence and new data that call urgent attention to the hidden dangers lying beneath water's surface. It shows how poor water quality stalls economic progress, stymies human potential, and reduces food production.Quality Unknown examines the effects of water quality on economic growth and finds upstream pollution lowers growth in downstream regions. It reveals that some of the most ubiquitous contaminants in water, such as nitrates and salt, have impacts that are larger, deeper, and wider than has been acknowledged. And it traces the damage to crop yields and the stark implications for food security in affected regions.An important step toward tackling the world's water quality challenge is recognizing its scale. The world needs reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information so that policy makers can have new insights, decision making can be evidence based, and citizens can call for action. The report calls for a paradigm shift that emphasizes safer, and often more cost-effective remedies that prevent pollution by combining smarter policies with newer technologies. A key message of Quality Unknown is that such solutions exist and change is possible.

Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis

World Bank Publications

Ebb and Flow: Volume 1: Water, Migration, and Development

Ebb and Flow: Volume 1. Water, Migration, and Development

Jägerskog, Anders

Khan, Amjad

Borgomeo, Edoardo

The Middle East and North Africa Region encapsulates many of the issues surrounding water and human mobility. It is the most water-scarce region in the world and is experiencing unprecedented levels of forced displacement. Ebb and Flow: Volume 2. Water in the Shadow of Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa examines the links between water risks (harmful outcomes related to water, from droughts and floods to lack of sanitation), conflict, and forced displacement. It aims to better explain how to address the vulnerabilities of forcibly displaced persons and their host communities, and to identify water policy and investment responses. Contrary to common belief, the report finds that the evidence linking water risks with conflict and forced displacement in the region is not unequivocal. Water risks are more frequently related to cooperation than to conflict at both domestic and international levels. But while conflict is not necessarily a consequence of water risks, the reverse is a real and concerning phenomenon: conflict amplifies water risks. Since 2011, there have been at least 180 instances of intentional targeting of water infrastructure in conflicts in Gaza, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Republic of Yemen. 
Forcibly displaced persons and their host communities face myriad water risks. Access to safe drinking water is a daily struggle for millions of forcibly displaced Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinians, Syrians, Yemenis, and international migrants in the region, heightening public health risks. Tanker trucks often help fill the gap; however, significant issues of water quality, reliability, and affordability remain. Host communities also face localized declines in water availability and quality as well as unplanned burdens on water services following the arrival of forcibly displaced persons. The reality of protracted forced displacement requires a shift from humanitarian support toward a development approach for water security, including structured yet flexible planning to deliver water services and sustain water resources for forcibly displaced persons and their host communities.

Ebb and Flow: Volume 2. Water in the Shadow of Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa

This report examines the impacts of subsidies on the world's stock of foundational natural capital: clean air, land, and oceans. It presents new research on the magnitude and impact of these subsidies, and presents solutions to reform them in efficient and equitable ways.

Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies

Rentschler, Jun

Gill, Joshua

Balseca, Esteban

de Fontaubert, Charlotte

Kim, Kichan

The great expansion of economic activity since the end of World War II has caused an unprecedented rise in living standards, but it has also caused rapid changes in earth systems. Nearly all types of natural capital—the world's stock of resources and services provided by nature—are in decline. Clean air, abundant and clean water, fertile soils, productive fisheries, dense forests, and healthy oceans are critical for healthy lives and healthy economies. Mounting pressures, however, suggest that the trend of declining natural capital may cast a long shadow into the future. 
Nature's Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital presents a novel approach to address these foundational challenges of sustainability. A methodology combining innovative science, new data sources, and cutting-edge biophysical and economic models builds sustainable resource efficiency frontiers to assess how countries can sustainably use their natural capital more efficiently. The analysis provides recommendations on how countries can better use their natural capital to achieve their economic and environ mental goals. 
The report indicates that significant efficiency gaps exist in nearly every country. Closing these gaps can address many of the world's pressing economic and environmental problems—economic productivity, health, food and water security, and climate change. Although the approach outlined in this report will entail demanding policy reforms, the costs of inaction will be far higher.

Nature's Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital (Environment and Sustainable Development)

GERBER, JAMES

Polasky, Stephen

Ruckelshaus, Mary

Amann, Markus

Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca

Hawthorne, Peter

Heger, Martin Philipp

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