1. Asset Accounts SEEAW training course New York, 13-17 November 2006

2. Outline What do Asset accounts measure?What do Asset accounts measure? Basic definitionsBasic definitions Asset classificationAsset classification SEEAW standard tablesSEEAW standard tables Supplementary tables/informationSupplementary tables/information Breakdown of water flowsBreakdown of water flows Matrix of flows within the environmentMatrix of flows within the environment

3. What do Asset Accounts measure? Asset Accounts describe in physical units The stocks of water resources The changes in stocks that occur during the accounting period (natural and anthropogenic changes) They link information on abstraction and returns with information on the stocks of water resources

4. Hydrological cycle and water balance Precipitation = Evapotranspiration + runoff +/- changes in storage

5. Basic structure Closing Stocks Opening Stocks Increases in stocks due to human activities due to natural processes Decreases in stocks due to human activities due to natural processes

6. 1993 SNA Asset classification “Aquifers and other groundwater resources to the extent that their scarcity leads to the enforcement of ownership and/or use of rights, market valuation and some measure of economic control”. Thus only a small portion of the water resources in a country is included in the 1993 SNA.

7. SEEAW Water resources include water found in fresh and brackish surface and groundwater bodies within the national territory that provide direct use benefits now or in the future (option benefits) through the provision of raw material and may be subject to quantitative depletion through human use.

8. SEEAW asset classification EA.13 Water Resources (measured in cubic metres) EA.131 Surface water EA.1311 Artificial Reservoirs EA.1312 Lakes EA.1313 Rivers and streams EA 1314 Glaciers, Snow and Ice EA 132 Groundwater EA.133 Soil Water

9. Asset accounts

10. Water resources Surface water: water which flows over, or is stored on the ground surface. It includes: artificial reservoirs, lakes, rivers and streams, glaciers, snow and ice. Groundwater: water which collects in porous layers of underground formations known as aquifers Soil water: water suspended in the uppermost belt of soil, or in the zone of aeration near the ground surface, that can be discharged in to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration

11. Water in oceans, seas and atmosphere …..not recorded in terms of stocks but only in terms of flows. For example, abstraction from the seas, collection of precipitation, outflows to the seas, evaporation/evapotranspiration etc.

12. Fresh and non-fresh water Water resources include fresh and brackish water. Brackish water can be used with or without treatment for some industrial uses or for irrigation purposes for some specific crops Water resources can be further disaggregated into fresh and brackish water

13. Stocks for rivers It is not easy to define. The stock of a river should be measured as the volume of the active riverbed determined on the basis of the geographic profile of the riverbed and the water level. This quantity is usually very small compared to the total stocks of water resources and the annual flows of rivers. It can be avoided computing the stocks of rivers

14. Matrix of transfers within the environment

15. Accounts for transboundary waters