TRADEOFF BETWEEN ECONOMIES OF SIZE IN TREATMENT AND DISECONOMIES OF DISTRIBUTION FOR RURAL WATER SYSTEMS

This paper outlines a method to determine the tradeoff between economies of size in water treatment and diseconomies of distribution. Cost equations are estimated for several treatment technologies and distribution extensions. Empirical results are used to identify optimal system size where average total costs are minimized. Regardless of treatment, most costs are due to distribution. As water systems expand service territories, only in the most densely populated areas would remaining economies of size in treatment outweigh the diseconomies in distribution.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

CONTROL OF NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION THROUGH VOLUNTARY INCENTIVE-BASED POLICIES: AN APPLICATION TO NITRATE CONTAMINATION IN NEW YORK

A voluntary program is developed to achieve environmental goals through the self-interested choices of farmers under environmental risk and asymmetric information. Farmers behave to maximize expected net returns, and environmental quality standards are formulated through chance constraints. Because the government may not know each farmer's soil type, policy options must be self-selecting. The model is applied empirically to nitrate leaching and runoff from corn production in three New York regions. Asymmetric information between producers and the government would impose additional cost burdens on society, but these costs are modest in the context of other farm programs.Environmental Economics and Policy,

OPTIMAL LAND CONVERSION AT THE RURAL-URBAN FRINGE WITH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTERNALITIES

Bid-rent curves are incorporated in a stochastic dynamic programming model of land development around a city when farmland generates both positive and negative externalities. The model delineates how the quantities of land in various uses over time should depend on the relative social weights assigned to the competing agricultural externalities.Land Economics/Use,

A HEDONIC APPROACH TO ESTIMATING OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE COSTS FOR NEW YORK MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEMS

A hedonic cost function is used to isolate the operation and maintenance costs for water treatments. For small systems, costs are substantial for some technologies, but not for others. When regional differences in input costs are accounted for, small systems located in rural areas may have a cost advantage over similar systems closer to urban centers; however, costs of water treatment to meet Safe Drinking Water Act amendments may still be substantial.Public Economics,

Incidence du facteur religieux dans la reconstruction\ud de l’identité du migrant :\ud Le cas de la communauté tamoule hindoue d’origine sri lankaise

La présente communication présente les orientations générales du Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le Montréal ethnoreligieux (GRIMER), ainsi que certaines observations préliminaires sur la communauté hindoue tamoule d’origine sri-lankaise. Le but premier du GRIMER est d’analyser l’incidence du facteur religieux dans la (re-)construction de l'identité des groupes minoritaires d’immigration récente sur le territoire montréalais. Ce projet est financé par le Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines du Canada (CRSH) et se déploie sur une période de trois ans; la recherche devrait se terminer en août 2007. Cinq professeurs-chercheurs y participent activement, et près d’une douzaine d’assistants de recherche – essentiellement des étudiants de cycles supérieurs – y collaborent également. Parmi l’équipe de recherche professorale, nous retrouvons une sociologue des religions, un historien des religion, un islamologue, un spécialiste de géographie humaine et, moi-même, possédant une formation hybride en philologie et anthropologie des religions dont le domaine de recherche est essentiellement l’Asie du sud

NY Pollution Discharge Elimination Permits for CAFOs, Management Adjustments and the Environment

Weakening demand for livestock and dairy produce, historically high prices for feed ingredients and increasingly strict regulations on animal waste management continue to put significant pressure on livestock and dairy operating margins. In this paper, we use representative farm mathematical programming models to analyze important linkages between farm management adjustments and changes in farm income due to recent changes in relevant agricultural prices and restrictions on land application of nutrients. We account explicitly for new restrictions on land application of nitrogen and phosphorus, and specifically applied to confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Our mathematical methods and the distinctive data available allows for the assessment of the effects on income and environmental nutrient loading for New York State dairy production farms. The results suggest that with current relative prices for feed ingredients, adjustments to dairy rations lead to increased nitrogen and phosphorus content in dairy waste and soil nutrient levels being applied well in excess of crop requirements. While the regulations will correct for this problem at the farm level, our results indicate that CAFOs could experience significant losses in income. These losses depend critically on the cost of off-site manure disposal. Our results also demonstrate that significant risks of excess nutrient loading remain during extreme weather events.CAFO regulations, nutrient management, manure disposal, mathematical programming, environmental quality, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Production Economics,

ACHIEVING EFFICIENCY AND EQUITY IN IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT: AN OPTIMIZATION MODEL OF THE EL ANGEL WATERSHED, CARCHI, ECUADOR

The objective of this paper is to address the problems of inefficiency and inequity in water allocation in the El Angel watershed, located in Ecuador's Sierra region. Water is captured in a high-altitude region of the watershed and distributed downstream to producers in four elevation-defined zones via a system of canals. Upstream and downstream producers face radically different conditions with respect to climate and terrain. A mathematical programming model was created to study the consequences of addressing chronic water scarcity problems in the watershed by shifting water resources between the four zones. The model captures the nature of water use by humans, crops and dual purpose cattle. Its objective function maximizes producer welfare as measured by aggregate gross margin, subject to limited supplies of land, labor and water. Five water allocation scenarios are evaluated with respect to efficiency in land and water use and equity in income distribution. Results reveal that although water is the primary constrained resource downstream, in the upstream zones, land is far more scarce. The current distribution of water rights does not consider these differences and therefore is neither efficient nor equitable. Improvements in efficiency (resource use) and equity (income distribution) are associated with (1) a shift of water to the lower zone, and (2) the use of lower levels of irrigation intensity upstream. Furthermore, the scenarios that result in the most efficient use of resources also bring the greatest degree of equity in income distribution, indicating that these may be complementary, not conflicting, goals.Mathematical programming, water allocation, efficiency, equity, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Surface diffusion coefficients by thermodynamic integration: Cu on Cu(100)

The rate of diffusion of a Cu adatom on the Cu(100) surface is calculated using thermodynamic integration within the transition state theory. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with the essentially exact values from molecular-dynamics simulations. The activation energy and related entropy are shown to be effectively independent of temperature, thus establishing the validity of the Arrhenius law over a wide range of temperatures. Our study demonstrates the equivalence of diffusion rates calculated using thermodynamic integration within the transition state theory and direct molecular-dynamics simulations.Comment: 4 pages (revtex), two figures (postscript

Dairy Farm Management Adjustments to Biofuels-Induced Changes in Agricultural Markets

A mathematical programming model of a representative New York dairy farm is developed to identify optimal management adjustments to increased availability of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). While at current prices DDGS feeding is limited to dry cows and young stock, as prices decrease, DDGS in lactating cow rations increase from 7.4% to 20% on a dry matter basis. While expected changes in net farm returns are modest, more important is the consideration of changes in nutrient management practices necessary to deal with increasing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the animal waste.Production, Management, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Représentation différentielle des immigrants fondateurs de l’Isle-aux-Coudres (Québec) : unions, parenté biologique, fécondité

Dans un contexte de peuplement, les premiers immigrants sont habituellement les plus représentés dans le bassin génétique de la population. La contribution différentielle des immigrants fondateurs de la population de l’Isle-aux-Coudres est évaluée ici à l’aide du Registre de la population et du recensement ethnologique de 1967; le rôle de la parenté biologique ainsi que du comportement matrimonial et reproducteur des descendants de ces fondateurs est étudié à l’aide des mesures du coefficient de parenté biologique, de la probabilité d’origine des gènes et des fins d’information généalogique. L’immigration, de type familial au début, a été accompagnée puis suivie de migration individuelle. Les générations ultérieures ont puisé leurs gènes dans ce bassin initial d’immigrants et dans les ajouts subséquents. Par ailleurs, ces ajouts n’ont pas nécessairement contribué à diversifier le patrimoine génétique de la population puisqu’on a pu constater qu’un bon nombre d’unions exogames étaient célébrées entre apparentés provenant majoritairement de Charlevoix. Les unions impliquant des apparentés ont eu une fécondité exprimée dans l’île plus importante, ce qui a contribué à l’homogénéisation du pool génique; les individus en âge de se reproduire en 1967 descendent d’un noyau restreint de fondateurs.In a context of land settlement, the first immigrants are generally most strongly represented in the population’s gene pool. This study uses the Registre de la population et du recensement ethnologique de 1967 (1967 ethnological census and population register) to evaluate the differential contribution of the immigrant founders of the population of Isle-aux-Coudres (an island in the St. Lawrence River east of Quebec City); it examines the role of kinship and of the marital and reproductive behaviours of the descendants of these founders based on measures of kinship coefficient, probability of gene origin and genealogical information concerning the first known ancestor. The early colonisation period was initially characterised by familial immigration, followed by individual immigration. Subsequent generations have drawn their genes from this initial pool of immigrants and from later arrivals. Moreover, these later arrivals did not necessarily help to diversify the population’s genetic heritage: the authors found a large number of exogamous unions with related individuals, most of whom were from the Charlevoix region. On the island, unions involving inbreeding proved to be more fertile, which contributed to homogenization of the gene pool; individuals of reproductive age in 1967 descend from quite a small core of founders