Water, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Economics (WEARE)

Researcher

Biography

Safa has a background in environmental and natural resource economics, focusing on water research. She joined the University of Cordoba as a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Finance, and Accounting in September 2023. She obtained her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) in 2023. Her dissertation involves the development and application of integrated and dynamic hydroeconomic modeling approaches for multisector analysis, including nonlinear and stochastic optimization techniques for sustainable water management, resource security, and climate resilience.

Safa holds an engineer’s degree in rural economics from the Higher School of Agriculture of Mograne in Tunisia (2016) and a master’s in integrated planning for rural development and environmental management from the University of Lleida, IAMZ-CIHEAM (2018). She participated in a GRBEPM group on hydroeconomic modeling and water policy analysis in many river basins that have been created between IIASA, the University of Zaragoza, the University of California (Riverside), and the University of Cape Town (South Africa) on the Ebro, Colorado basins (USA), and Limpopo (South Africa). Throughout her academic journey, she has been a recipient of various scholarships, including the FPI Ph.D. scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Erasmus Plus for an international exchange program, and the IAMZ-CIHEAM scholarship for her master’s course at the University of Lleida.

Research interests

• Economic instruments for sustainable water management: institutional instruments, water use efficiency and multisector water allocation assessments, cost-benefit analysis, and cost-effectiveness analysis using the marginal abatement cost curve (MACC).
• Mathematical programming for policy analysis includes integrated biophysical economics modeling for basin-scale water policy analysis (hydroeconomic modeling)
• Water and atmospheric quality: diffuse contamination and Greenhouse gas emissions
• Environmental impact assessment: ecosystem valuation
• Adaptation policy interventions to global changes in water and agriculture
• Other research interests include an agent-based model

Currently research projects

• BHYEM (PID2019-107127RB-100): Water policy analysis in a context of water scarcity and climate change: a hydro-economic model at a watershed scale integrating micro and macroeconomic effects. Project Coordinator: Julio Berbel (University of Córdoba)
• ECOBIMA (S70_23D) Economy, Wellbeing and Environment. Project Coordinator: Yolanda Martínez (University of Zaragoza).

Other previous research projects include Governance of Water Resources and Ecosystems Protection under Climate Change Scenarios (2021-2023), ECONATURA: Economics of the Environment and Natural Resources (2018-2020; 2020-2023), Sustainability of the Use of Land and Water in Agricultural Activities and Protection of Ecosystems against Droughts and Climate Change (2018-2021), and Irrigation management in the face of water scarcity, droughts, and climate change (2015-2018).

Awards & Achievements

• The best doctoral thesis in water economics, Cátedra Aquae de Economía del Agua (2023 edition)
• The best diploma in agricultural economics engineering at the Higher School of Agriculture of Mograne (Tunisia, 2016)
• Elsevier certificate stated that my article was linked to the united nations sustainable development goals

Research stays

• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA, (Austria). Period: 07/2018 – 09/2018. Supervisors: Dr. Petr Havlik and Dr. Taher Kahil. Purpose of the stay: Climate change mitigation and adaptation policy analysis.
• New Mexico State University NMSU, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business (New Mexico, US). Period: 09/2021 – 12/2021. Supervisor: Dr. Frank Ward. Purpose of the stay: Economic and policy analysis of climate water stress adaptation
• Laval University LU, Department of Civil Engineering (Quebec, Canada). Period: 03/2022 – 05/2022. Supervisor: Dr. Amaury Tilmant. Purpose of the stay: Water policy analysis using stochastic hydro-economic modeling
• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA, Water Security Research Group (Austria). Period: 03/2023 – 05/2023. Supervisor: Dr. Taher Kahil. Purpose of the stay: Participation in the development of a global model GLOBECHO

Peer-reviewed publications

Baccour, S., Albiac, J., Ward, F., Kahil, T., Esteban, E., Uche, J., Calvo, E. and Crespo, D. (2024). Managing climate risks: new evidence from integrated analysis at the basin scale, International Journal of Water Resources Development doi: 10.1080/07900627.2024.2390937

Baccour, S., Goelema, G., Kahil, T. Albiac, J., T.H. Van Vliet, M. , Zhu, X. and Strokal, M. (2024). Water quality management could halve future water scarcity cost-effectively in the Pearl River Basin, Nature Communications 15:5669 doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49929-z

Baccour, S., Ward, F., Albiac, J., 2022. Climate Adaptation Guidance: New Roles for hydroeconomic Analysis. Journal of Science of the Total Environment, 155518 doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155518

Baccour, S., Albiac, J., Kahil, T., Esteban, E., Crespo, D., Dinar, A., 2021. Hydroeconomic modeling for assessing water scarcity and agricultural pollution abatement policies in the Ebro River Basin, Spain. Journal of Cleaner Production, 129459
doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129459

Baccour, S., Albiac, J., Kahil, T., 2021. Cost-effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture of Aragon, Spain. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(3), 1084 doi: 10.3390/ijerph18031084

Crespo, D., Albiac, J., Kahil, T., Esteban, E., Baccour, S., 2019. Tradeoffs between water uses and environmental flows: a hydroeconomic analysis in the Ebro basin. Water Resources management, 33(7), 2301-2317 doi: 10.1007/s11269-019-02254-3