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Some conceptual problems of interpreting the value of water in humid regions
Author(s) -
Olson Sherry Hessler
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr002i001p00001
Subject(s) - marginal value , irrigation , value (mathematics) , marginal product , acre , productivity , environmental science , marginal revenue , product (mathematics) , agriculture , revenue , marginal cost , water use , water supply , industrial water , water resource management , economics , mathematics , production (economics) , environmental engineering , geography , statistics , agricultural science , engineering , microeconomics , ecology , macroeconomics , geometry , archaeology , accounting , waste management , biology
Procedures for calculating returns per acre‐foot of water were developed in western United States irrigation projects and have been applied to supplemental irrigation in the humid eastern areas. These procedures constitute an operational definition of a marginal product of water, but the definition rests on a different theoretical basis in the two cases and does not apply to intermediate conditions. No general notion of marginal revenue of water appears meaningful for manufacturing uses, which are largely nondepleting. Comparisons made between the value of water in farming and in industrial uses are of doubtful value, particularly if they are extended to the humid regions. A method is proposed here for estimating the ‘marginal value’ of water intake in manufacturing. The method is based on the cost of the internal economy of water in an industrial plant. It may be used to compare the relative productivity of water in depleting and nondepleting uses, or to compare the returns to industry with the costs of public development of a water supply. Some estimates of marginal value are derived from data supplied by the Bethlehem Steel Company plant at Sparrows Point, Maryland.