Socio-economics and water management: Revisiting the contribution of economics in the implementation of the water framework directive in Greece

This chapter sets out the socio-economic principles that should govern water resources management for the achievement of a sustainable allocation of the resource over time and across space, in accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive. The resulting allocation should be economically efficient, socially equitable and acceptable and environmentally sustainable. The main background concept guiding the identification of such an allocation is the ‘total economic value (TEV)’ of water resources. This concept derives from the ecosystem goods and services that water resources provide the economy and society. In this chapter we present the state of the art with regard to estimating the TEV of water resources and explain how these estimations can facilitate the design and implementation of different European policies in relation to mitigation of different forms of water stress.