142 资源科学 卷第5期 Discussions on water Resources economics LI Hao. XIA Jun Abstract: With the advancement of new technologies, the degree of water development approaches its limit. At the same time, there is a serious waste of water resources caused by lower price. Water resources have changed gradually from renewable resources to nom renewable resource eople will be in a dilemma using minimum water to realize maximum economic profit, which accelerate the birth of water resources economics(WRE). WRE is the empirical sciences which studying the options of mankind in use of water resources, and its purpose lies in realizing the reasonable distribution and utilization of water resources at spatial and temporal scale. The natural attributes of water resources has not been thought as one of constraint set in ecoomic behavior and there is ot integrated analysis structure in WRE, which will baffle the development of WRE. To alter this situation, the author argues that the research of WRE should focus on productivity of water resources while three facets of issues in terms of water resources natural attributes, the relationship between human and water resources, and the relationship between water resources use and human. Therefore, the basic contents of WRE should consist of natural, social and ecommic attributes of water resources. To achieve above objectives, the research of Wre based on different disciplines should fully use the spatial and temporal analysis tools. Firstly research need to incorporate different ecommic theories into WRE, which could include information economics, public choice theory, property rights theory, transaction cost theory, welfare economics and game theory. Secondly, Wre should couple hydrologic odel and ecomomic mdel, especially couple agricultural sector odel, ecomomic odel with the swat( soil and Water Assessment Tool )model which could simulate the relationship between economic behavior and water circulation. Thirdly, WRE should combine the geographic information system( GIS) with spatial ecoomics. That is, we should study the spatial distribution and rule of ecoomic value of water resources. In addition, our research must emphasize on human behavior in utilization of water, and abstract it to an ecommic behavior, which can be analyzed by economics tool Key words: Water resources economics; Theoretical frame; Research method; behavior of using water o1994-2008ChinaAcademicournalElectronicPublishingHouseAllrightsreservedhttp://nnv.cnki.netDiscussions on Water Resources Economics LI Hao1 ,2 , XIA Jun1 (1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research , CAS , Beijing 100101 , China ; 2. Graduate School , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , China) Abstract: With the advancement of new technologies , the degree of water development approaches its limit. At the same time , there is a serious waste of water resources caused by lower price. Water resources have changed gradually from renewable resources to non2renewable resources. So people will be in a dilemma using minimum water to realize maximum economic profit , which accelerate the birth of water resources economics (WRE) . WRE is the empirical sciences which studying the options of mankind in use of water resources , and its purpose lies in realizing the reasonable distribution and utilization of water resources at spatial and temporal scale. The natural attributes of water resources has not been thought as one of constraint set in economic behavior and there is not integrated analysis structure in WRE , which will baffle the development of WRE. To alter this situation , the author argues that the research of WRE should focus on productivity of water resources while three facets of issues in terms of , water resources natural attributes , the relationship between human and water resources , and the relationship between water resources use and human. Therefore , the basic contents of WRE should consist of natural , social and economic attributes of water resources. To achieve above objectives , the research of WRE based on different disciplines should fully use the spatial and temporal analysis tools. Firstly , research need to incorporate different economic theories into WRE , which could include information economics , public choice theory , property rights theory , transaction cost theory , welfare economics and game theory. Secondly , WRE should couple hydrologic model and economic model , especially couple agricultural sector model , economic model with the SWAT(Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model which could simulate the relationship between economic behavior and water circulation. Thirdly , WRE should combine the geographic information system ( GIS) with spatial economics. That is , we should study the spatial distribution and rule of economic value of water resources. In addition , our research must emphasize on human behavior in utilization of water , and abstract it to an economic behavior , which can be analyzed by economics tool. Key words:Water resources economics ; Theoretical frame ; Research method ; behavior of using water 241 资 源 科 学 29 卷第 5 期 © 1994-2008 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved. http://www.cnki.net