This book deals with voluntary approaches between farmers and water suppliers as an instrument to meet environmental standards, impacted by agricultural activities, more economically efficient and environmentally effective than by exclusive application of alternative instruments including command-and-control approaches. The book is based largely on the results of the research project 'Co-operative Agreements in Agriculture as an Instrument to Improve the Economic Efficiency and Economic Effectiveness of the European Water Policy', which was supplemented for specific issues by key experts. The...

In the mid 1980's - while a student at the department of econometrics at the Free University - I became an assistant at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IvM) of this university. My main task was assisting with the com- putational aspects of the project 'an integrated environmental model: a case study in the Markiezaat area'. A number of methodological problems were for- mulated during the operationalization phase of that project, such as the need to develop systematically an integrated model design and to look for means of handling different sources of information. Prof. Dr. P....