Residential Water Demand Management Programs: A Selected Review of Literature

This review consists of three parts. First, I review a handful of papers that compare the effectiveness of alternative demand management programs. Second, I examine methods used in the literature to evaluate alternative demand management programs. Finally, I include several appendixes that list references to major topics in the water demand management literature. I do not review studies of the response of water demanded to changes in price because thorough reviews of this literature are available, at least for residential water demand. Appendix 5 provides an extensive list of references on residential water demand and pricing. Most of these are from USEPA (2004) and the literature reviews by Arbues et. al. (2003) and Epsy et. al. (1997). Far fewer studies of industrial demand for water have been published. The industrial demand references in Appendix 6 were compiled from de Gispert (2004) and Reynaud (2003). Working Paper Number 2005-00

Irrigated Acreage in Georgia's Altamaha River Basin During the Drought Year 2000

Using a "mixed media" approach, which tracts changes in pixel (color) values over the summer indicating changes from dry land to wet land, we have developed estimates for irrigated acreage in the Altamaha River Basin that draws water from ground water or perennial surface water sources. The latter condition is assured given that our estimates come from identified irrigation during the summer of 2000, which was one of Georgia's worst drought years of record. It is improbable that irrigators reliant on non-perennial sources could have successfully irrigated a crop during this drought year. Data provided here should be useful to the state in a number of ways. The state is moving forward with its plans to develop Basin Water Plans, and basic to such plans is information as to the agricultural sectors use of water under worst-case conditions -- conditions of drought. Further, such data can play important roles in efforts by the state to work out solutions to issues related to the use of interstate waters -- ground or surface waters. Working Paper Number 2005-001

Privatizing the Commons: The Distribution of Total Product

Most research on common property has focused upon the implications of property rights for the maximization of social product. Paul Samuelson and Martin Weitzman looked at distribution and concluded that converting common property will reduce the product received by former users of common property. It is argued here that the product received by former users of common property depends upon the distribution of the newly created private rights.Commons; Privatizing