Dr. Erik Gawel

Areas of Research: Economics of water resources, energy and environmental economics

JWP: Belmont Partner, Principal Investigator, Germany

Biographical Information

Professor Gawel, a full Professor at Leipzig University, directs the Institute for Infrastructure and Resources Management and is at the same time Deputy Head of the Department of Economics at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig. He has produced more than 200 journal papers and 15 books mainly on water-related issues.

Research

Dr. Gawel's work has involved institutional and governance issues of water resources and infrastructure management, economic instruments for water policy, particularly pricing strategies and demand management as well as analyses of the water-food nexus, water-related trading patterns and economic aspects of the right to water. His research currently focuses inter alia on institutional dimensions of a sustainability-oriented transition of infrastructures for freshwater services.

Professional Activities

Professor Gawel is reviewer for the IPCC, the German Research Foundation, the EU IWRM-Net and other national and international funding institutions. He co-chaired the session “Economic and political aspects of IWRM and Governance” at the 3rd Water Research Horizon Conference 2012 in Berlin and is co-convenor of the session “Trade, Food Security and Sustainable Management of Water Resources” at World Water Week 2012 in Stockholm. He is scientific advisor of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment on economic instruments for water policy.