Assessing the Direct Economic Effects of Reallocating Irrigation Water to Alternative Uses: Concepts and an Application

Irrigation water reallocations are playing an increasingly important role in both developed and developing countries. With growing urban and environmental water demands, rising costs for the development of new water supplies, and irrigated agriculture usually including the least economically valuable use of water, transfers of irrigation water to alternative uses are increasing. However, such reallocations are often controversial, and it is often questioned whether the benefits resulting from these transactions are large enough to outweigh the associated costs. This paper reviews the experience with irrigation water transfers, including the involvement of the World Bank. It discusses the problems of assessing the direct economic effects of reallocations, with a focus on the foregone direct benefits in irrigated agriculture. Because foregone direct benefits cannot easily be directly observed, they need to be estimated. However, assessments have shown widely differing estimates -- even when the same methodology was used. The paper reviews the methodologies and model specifications used for estimating foregone direct benefits; illustrates the impact of different model specifications on the magnitude of estimates of foregone direct benefits based on an application in an example case; and draws conclusions with regard to future efforts in assessing reallocation effects, including calculating adequate compensation for farmers. Because estimating the direct benefits of irrigation expansion is methodologically equivalent to estimating foregone direct benefits from reduced irrigation water supplies, the findings have implications for a broader range of water allocation decisions

Assessing the direct economic effects of reallocating irrigation water to alternative uses : concepts and an application

Irrigation water reallocations are playing an increasingly important role in both developed and developing countries. With growing urban and environmental water demands, rising costs for the development of new water supplies, and irrigated agriculture usually including the least economically valuable use of water, transfers of irrigation water to alternative uses are increasing. However, such reallocations are often controversial, and it is often questioned whether the benefits resulting from these transactions are large enough to outweigh the associated costs. This paper reviews the experience with irrigation water transfers, including the involvement of the World Bank. It discusses the problems of assessing the direct economic effects of reallocations, with a focus on the foregone direct benefits in irrigated agriculture. Because foregone direct benefits cannot easily be directly observed, they need to be estimated. However, assessments have shown widely differing estimates -- even when the same methodology was used. The paper reviews the methodologies and model specifications used for estimating foregone direct benefits; illustrates the impact of different model specifications on the magnitude of estimates of foregone direct benefits based on an application in an example case; and draws conclusions with regard to future efforts in assessing reallocation effects, including calculating adequate compensation for farmers. Because estimating the direct benefits of irrigation expansion is methodologically equivalent to estimating foregone direct benefits from reduced irrigation water supplies, the findings have implications for a broader range of water allocation decisions.Water Conservation,Water Economics,Water Policy&Governance,Irrigation and Drainage,Natural Resources Management

Toward Improved Water Quality Management in Central and Eastern Europe

Water quality management has become a core environmental issue in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Based on illustrative examples, this article outlines the state of water quality in the pre-transition period and analyses the impacts of the transition process on water quality. It also assesses the current reform efforts in water quality management and identifies issues which need to be addressed in the short- and longer-term for sustaining or extending water quality improvements. The focus is on five CEE countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Other countries in the region, which may have followed a different transition path, are likely to face similar challenges in water quality management in the near future

Measuring Foregone Direct Benefits of Irrigation Water Transfers: The Effect of Model Specification

Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Inpatient & Outpatient Venous Thromboembolism: A Multifactorial Approach to Increase Mechanical and Pharmacological Prophylaxis Compliance

Venous thromboemboli (VTEs) are a clinical and public health problem as they are commonly linked to inpatient experiences, yet frequently occur in the outpatient setting. VTEs place a significant burden on health care organizations and patients alike, as VTEs are costly, require long-term medications, and frequently reoccur. Research has identified risk factors and determined best practices for VTE prevention and prophylaxis, however little consensus exists among health care organizations and the implementation of best practices is varied. This project studied the challenges and opportunities in VTE prevention and prophylaxis at a large metropolitan hospital in California. Environmental changes were made in patient rooms across ten medical surgical units to increase nurses’ compliance with sequential compression device (SCD) orders. New machines were labeled and placed on patient beds, signs were placed on documentation stations, and education sessions were conducted with over 300 medical surgical nurses. Informal interviews with nursing staff, discharge pharmacists, and the hospital’s outpatient clinic staff were conducted to determine obstacles in compliance and gaps in anticoagulant discharge education. The subsequent audits revealed that nurses’ compliance with SCD orders and documentation remain low and that SCD machines continue to be misplaced, transferred between units, and stored incorrectly. Additional observations further indicated that discharge anticoagulation education is inconsistent and a discharge checklist was developed in response. Future work will include increased education about SCD compliance and documentation. Additional research should be conducted to identify new barriers to compliance, interdisciplinary influences, as well as to determine local, state, or national similarities. Furthermore, interdisciplinary processes must be developed to ensure the tracking and return of machines. In addition, an institutional policy, such as the standardization of the discharge checklist, should be implemented to ensure consistent discharge patient education and optimal patient outcomes

Determining the Price-Responsiveness of Demands for Irrigation Water Deliveries versus Consumptive Use

A water-crop simulation/mathematical programming model of irrigation water demand in northeastern Colorado is formulated to develop an original concept of derived demand for consumptive use of water. Conventional demand functions for water deliveries are also developed, and the effect of hypothetical price increases on both consumption and delivery are illustrated. Findings indicate that demand elasticity estimates are quite sensitive to model specification, and consumptive use demand tends to be significantly less price-responsive than delivery demand. Thus price incentives are likely to have only limited impacts on basin-wide water consumption and would not make much additional water available for emerging demands.crop simulation, irrigation, mathematical programming, water conservation, water-demand elasticities, water policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

IRRIGATION WATER DEMAND: A META ANALYSIS OF PRICE ELASTICITIES

Meta-regression models are estimated to investigate sources of variation in empirical estimates of the price elasticity of irrigation water demand. Elasticity estimates are drawn from mathematical programming, econometric and field experiment studies reported in the United States since 1963. Explanatory variables include method of analysis, water price, time-frame of analysis, farmers' adjustment options, type of data, and climate. Results indicate that the magnitudes of elasticity estimates are affected by the method of analysis. When separate regressions are performed for the estimates from each method, the price of water at which an elasticity is estimated as well as the time-frame of analysis are found to influence price elasticities.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Improving the Performance ofWater Policies: Evidence from Drought in Spain

[EN] Water scarcity is a critical environmental issue worldwide, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In those regions, climate change projections suggest further reductions in freshwater supplies and increases of the recurrence, longevity and intensity of drought events. At present, one important question for policy debate is the identification of water policies that could address the mounting water scarcity problems. Suitable policies should improve economic efficiency, achieve environmental sustainability, and meet equity needs. This paper develops and applies an integrated hydro-economic model that links hydrological, economic and environmental elements to such issues. The model is used to conduct a direct comparison of water markets, water pricing and institutional cooperation, based on their economic, environmental and equity outcomes. The analysis is performed in the Jucar Basin of Spain, which is a good natural experiment for studying water scarcity and climate change policies. Results indicate that both institutional and water market policies are high performing instruments to limit the economic damage costs of droughts, achieving almost the same social benefits. However, the environmental effects of water markets are worrying. Another important finding is that water pricing is a poor policy option not only in terms of private and environmental benefits but also in terms of equity. Guardar / Salir Siguiente >This study was financed by project INIA RTA2010-00109-C04 and INIA RTA2014-00050-00-00 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness partially financed by ERDF funds, and project BIL/13/MA/072 from MAPFRE Foundation. The Ministry supported also a Ph.D scholarship of the first author. 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Effects of initial aquifer conditions on economic benefits from groundwater conservation

Worldwide, there is growing recognition of the need to reduce agricultural groundwater use in response to rapid rates of aquifer depletion. To date, however, few studies have evaluated how benefits of conservation vary along an aquifer's depletion pathway. To address this question, we develop an integrated modeling framework that couples an agro-economic model of farmers' field-level irrigation decision-making with a borehole-scale groundwater flow model. Unique to this framework is the explicit consideration of the dynamic reductions in well yields that occur as an aquifer is depleted, and how these changes in intraseasonal groundwater supply affect farmers' ability to manage production risks caused by climate variability and, in particular, drought. For an illustrative case study in the High Plains region of the United States, we apply our model to analyze the value of groundwater conservation activities for different initial aquifer conditions. Our results demonstrate that there is a range of initial conditions for which reducing pumping will have long-term economic benefits for farmers by slowing reductions in well yields and prolonging the usable lifetime of an aquifer for high-value irrigated agriculture. In contrast, restrictions on pumping that are applied too early or too late will provide limited welfare benefits. We suggest, therefore, that there are ‘windows of opportunity’ to implement groundwater conservation, which will depend on complex feedbacks between local hydrology, climate, crop growth, and economics