Open AccessMEASURING THE COSTS OF REALLOCATING WATER FROM AGRICULTURE: A MULTI‐MODEL APPROACH
Author(s) -
SUNDING DAVID,
ZILBERMAN DAVID,
HOWITT RICHARD,
DINAR ARIEL,
MacDOUGALL NEAL
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
natural resource modeling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.28
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1939-7445
pISSN - 0890-8575
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-7445.2002.tb00086.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , forcing (mathematics) , water quality , environmental science , conceptual model , water supply , water resource management , natural resource economics , environmental economics , environmental resource management , business , economics , computer science , environmental engineering , geography , ecology , archaeology , database , biology , climatology , geology
. Increasing demand for water by environmental interests, coupled with the diminishing prospects for constructing new water diversion projects, is forcing farmers in the western United States to cope with reduced surface water deliveries. The cost of improving instream water quality by reducing agricultural diversions is shown to depend mainly on how the supply reductions are allocated among users and on the extent of water trading. A central contribution of this paper is a methodology for measuring the impacts of water supply policy reforms on irrigated agriculture. The paper nests three empirical models in a general conceptual framework. The models differ in terms of their degree of detail and assumptions about input substitution. By comparing model results, it is possible to place bounds on the consequences of policy changes, and to identify critical factors determining economic impacts. The models are applied to the problem of improving water quality in the San Francisco Bay/Delta estuary.