Growing concern about particulate matter (PM_2.5) pressures Korea to reduce the health risks associated with its high dependency on fossil fuels. The Korean economy relies heavily on large thermal power plants—a major source of PM_2.5 emissions. Although air quality regulations can negatively impact local economies, the Korean government announced two strict air quality mitigation policies in 2019. We develop a regional static computable general equilibrium model to simulate the economic and environmental impacts of these polices under alternative hypothetical scenarios. We separate two regions, Chungcheongnam-do, the most polluted region, and the rest of the country, in our model. As policy options, we introduce a regional development tax and a tradable market for PM emission permits, similar to an air pollution tax and a carbon permits market, respectively. The results show that allowing higher tax rates and a tradable permits market gives the optimal combination, with the PM_2.5 emissions reduced by 2.35% without sacrificing economic growth. Since alternative options present, for example, a 0.04% loss of gross domestic product to reduce PM emissions by the same amount, our results here may present a new policy paradigm for managing air pollutants such as PM_2.5.

Ecological river restoration projects aim to revitalize healthy and self-sustaining river systems that can provide irreplaceable benefits to human society. Cheonggyecheon and Anyangcheon are two sites of recent river restoration projects in Korea. To assess the economic value of two rivers, count data was collected to conduct the individual travel cost method (ITCM) in this study. Five statistical models such as the Poisson, the negative binomial, the zero-truncated Poisson, the negative binomial, and negative binomial model adjusted for both truncation and endogenous stratification were used in the analysis due to the nature of count data. Empirical results showed that regressors were statistically significant and corresponded to conventional consumer theory. Since collected count data indicated over-dispersion and endogenous stratification, the adjusted Negative Binomial was selected as an optimal model to analyze the recreational value of Cheonggyecheon and Anyangcheon. Estimates of the annual economic value of two river restoration projects were approximately US $170.1 million and US $50.5 million, respectively.

Historically, the Nile, a well-known transboundary river, has been a major contributor to Egyptian economic growth in many ways but has suffered from sediment accumulation. Since anthropocentric activities on the Nile delta heavily rely on nutrient-rich sediment from the Ethiopian highland, sediment control schemes in the Aswan High Dam not only prolong the life of the dam but also increase the economic value of the watershed. The purpose of our study is to use an economic optimization approach to evaluate the feasibility of sustainable management of the Nile concerning climate change. The model considers significant anthropocentric effects on the reservoir as well as the impacts of climate change on the entire watershed. Moreover, the social planner’s model is developed to unravel somewhat numerous externalities. The results indicate that among the various technically feasible sediment removal schemes, the hydro-suction sediment removal system (HSRS) is the only desirable solution under severe climate change. In order to control the negative externalities in the watershed, the in-stream flow control should be applied. By implementing appropriate management schemes simultaneously, the life of the AHD can be extended, and the total economic benefits of the entire watershed can be maximized to approximately $272 billion USD.

Anthropogenic pressures have exacerbated self-sustaining river services, and growing concerns over sustaining river system become global problematic issues that lead us to implement river restoration projects. Of those projects, governing diverse needs and desires from stakeholders for those who have various water values are key elements of identifying the success of the project. In fact, the Korean government has had concern over restoring the rivers which brings to construct 16 weirs in four major rivers and may fail to achieve main goal of the project, which is to ameliorate water quality. In this study, principle component analysis and multinomial logit model were executed to investigate major socioeconomic variables to influence water values in terms of sustainability in Korea. Evitable evidences have been found that age, income, education level, and city dwelling are the most effective variables to estimate water values. In addition, a monotonous water development project and a myopic view could cause major dejection across the nation and may lead to the failure of water governance. Unfortunately, the latter may be observed in Korea as one of the reasons for the recent amplification of major conflicts.