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Groundwater Management and Salinity Control: A Case Study in Northwest Mexico
Author(s) -
McFarland James W.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1238408
Subject(s) - aquifer , groundwater , irrigation , environmental science , salinity , soil salinity , leaching (pedology) , soil salinity control , stock (firearms) , water resource management , time horizon , hydrology (agriculture) , soil water , leaching model , geography , geology , soil science , business , agronomy , oceanography , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , finance , biology
Policy issues associated with the management of a coastal groundwater aquifer and soil salinity are examined for an irrigation area in northwest Mexico. The primary policy issues are the intertemporal rate of use of the groundwater stock, the allocation of water between irrigation and leaching, and the selection of crops. A management model, cast in a dynamic programming format, indicates that the aquifer should be mined at a rapid rate near the beginning of the planning horizon, gradually decline through time, and converge to safe yield after twenty‐nine years. Further, a larger percentage of total water use should be allocated to leaching to maintain soil salinity at lower levels.