INSTITUTIONS AND TECHNOLOGY: KEYS TO BETTER WATER MANAGEMENT1

Seven considerations which bear upon the achievement of better water management are discussed. First, separation of judgments of fact from judgements of value is helpful in deciding upon what actions to take. Second, separation of social values from matters of individual or group interest is crucial to institutional design. Third, achieving economically efficient water management may create a surplus of benefits which can be divided among the parties in order to resolve conflicts. Fourth, surpluses also can be used inappropriately, whether to reward undesirable behavior or to penalize unjustly. Fifth, avoidance of external costs is best achieved through restructuring of rewards and penalties. Sixth, technological solutions are too easily selected in place of less costly institutional change. Seventh, water management technology is too often selected in place of more cost-effective, water-related technology. Selected examples of each of these considerations are offered. However, better water management is not easy to define. The social process criterion adopted in this paper is discussed briefly.     

EFFECTS OF INCREASED DELTA EXPORTS ON SACRAMENTO VALLEY'S ECONOMY AND WATER MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: Exports from the Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta are an important source of water for Central Valley and Southern California users. The purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyze the effects increased exports to south of Delta users would have on the Sacramento Valley economy and water management if water were managed and reallocated for purely economic benefits, as if there were an ideal Sacramento Valley water market. Current Delta exports of 6,190 thousand acre‐feet per year were increased incrementally to maximum export pumping plant capacities. Initial increases in Delta exports did not increase regional water scarcity, but decreased surplus Delta flows. Further export increases raised agricultural scarcity. Urban users suffer increased scarcity only for exports exceeding 10,393 taf/yr. Expanding exports raises the economic value of expanding key facilities (such as Engle bright Lake and South Folsom Canal) and the opportunity costs of environmental requirements. The study illustrates the physical and economic capacity of the Sacramento Valley to further increase exports of water to drier parts of the state, even within significant environmental flow restrictions. More generally, the results illustrate the physical capacity for greater economic benefits and flexibility in water management within environmental constraints, given institutional capability to reoperate or reallocate water resources, as implied by water markets.     

Flexibility in Water Resources Management: Review of Concepts and Development of Assessment Measures for Flood Management Systems

Discussions around adapting water management systems to climate change often express the need to increase system flexibility. Yet despite the frequent use of the term flexibility, very little work has examined what exactly it means to have a flexible water management system, what features of a system make it more flexible than another system, or when the costs to implement flexible options outweigh the benefits gained from increased flexibility. To define and operationalize the concept of flexibility in the field of water resources management, this article reviews and analyzes concepts of flexibility from the fields of information technology, manufacturing, management, and adaptive social‐ecological systems. We identify five characteristics of flexible water resources systems, namely: slack, redundancy, connectivity, compatibility/coordination, and adjustability. We then operationalize the assessment of flexibility for flood management systems by proposing original flexibility metrics and discussing their application. We conclude with a discussion on the tradeoffs of increasing flexibility.     

INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT: CONTENDING WITH GARBAGE CAN DECISIONMAIUNG IN ORGANIZED ANARCHIES1

ABSTRACT: Water management in the United States has historically been characterized by a decisionmaking system that is fragmented along three dimensions: (1) physical, (2) institutional, and (3) political-technical. The result is often ‘garbage can’ decision-making in open decisionmaking structures with the attributes of an ‘organized anarchy’ rather than the rational, comprehensive decisionmaking prescribed for water management. A case study of water quality management decisionmaking in the New York Finger Lakes is used to illustrate how the garbage can model can illuminate the forces that operate in fragmented water management. Interorganizational decisionmaking theory and experience from water management integration initiatives are then applied to assess what strategies may be effective in reducing the organizational anarchy that results from fragmented water management institutions.     

Water and sustainable development

In this paper, it is proposed that water resources should be managed as an integral part of a nation's social and economic development. Water resources managers should broaden their scope of work to include an integrated management approach. Instead of the traditional 'supply oriented approach' in which they act in response to ever-increasing demands for water from different sectors of the economy, water resources management agencies should play a more active role in guiding and stimulating socioeconomic development through more efficient water use. Demand management should be an important tool which should go beyond the improvement of technical efficiencies. Most important is to develop economic and institutional approaches that accept charging for the full costs of the utilization and management of water resources. Implementation of such an approach will require more sectoral integration than is currently the case and will have considerable implications for organizations, staffing, institutional arrangements and corresponding capacity building.     

MISSOURI RIVER DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Federal planners, in proposing the massive main stem Missouri River water developments in Montana and North Dakota, promised economic and social benefits to the local residents. Five main stem dams, Fort Peck, Garrison, Oahe, Big Bend and Fort Randall, were evaluated for community and rural development effectiveness. Thirty-seven development factors were examined and improvements noted. Only small differences were noted between areas with water developments and the control area. Further analysis revealed that water development benefits moved downstream and to existing urban areas. The Missouri River's rural areas and small communities were not developed significantly by the water projects. Several problems associated with water development policy were illustrated by the study. Cultural differences between planners and the population impacted were ignored. Second, the allocation of social costs was not considered and related to this, serious geographic maldistribution of benefits and costs resulted. The differences between pre-development promises and development performance was dramatic. While the large dams remain as landmarks to engineering prowess, the projects need to be evaluated for their success in meeting humanistic development objectives. Major redevelopment may be warranted by such an ex-post evaluation.     

Drought,water access,and urban agriculture: a case study from Silicon Valley

In California, the growing popularity of urban agriculture (UA) has unfolded against a backdrop of historic drought. While UA is often celebrated as an urban sustainability strategy, it must be able to persist during drought if it is to perform these functions. Using Santa Clara County – the geographic core of Silicon Valley – as a case study, we use interviews and surveys to explore the implications of drought for UA. We show how developing an understanding of water access for UA during a drought requires examining the social and institutional context of water management and use. In metropolitan California, the highly decentralised water supply system combined with the diverse institutional arrangements that support UA create an uneven landscape of water access. Consequently, the pressure to change water-consuming practices – that is, the stress that institutional drought responses place on different water users – is geographically and socially differentiated. Among UA water users, responses to drought have also varied, in part because the possibilities for change are constrained by the sociotechnical arrangements of UA sites and the different purposes of UA.     

A NOTE ON THE EVALUATION OF ACTIVITY DEPENDENT RECREATIONAL DAMAGE COST FUNCTIONS1

ABSTRACT: Recreation benefits or costs are an important aspect in the planning for and evaluation of water resources project strategies. How to include in a quantitative fashion the effects of water quality for planning and analysis is yet unresolved. We describe a quantitative formulation for a recreation function in which the water quality is the argument, and suggest how the coefficients may be evaluated.     

BUILDING THE AGENDA FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: This paper pursues more specifically the recommendations of a recent National Research Council report recommending greater attention to research on institutions in the field of water resource management. The important challenge for the future in institutional research lies in going beyond the observation that institutions are important and in explaining instead how institutions actually affect management options and outcomes. It is possible to illuminate the relationships between institutional features and water management through comparative institutional research. This paper offers recommendations for studying water institutions in a comparative context, including methodological recommendations concerning approaches to comparative institutional research, and topics for comparative institutional research that appear especially fruitful at this time. The example of conjunctive management is used to illustrate the importance of institutional factors in water management, drawing to some extent on the authors’ recent experience with a comparative study of conjunctive management institutions.     

ESTIMATING THE PUBLIC'S VALUES FOR INSTREAM FLOW: ECONOMIC TECHNIQUES AND DOLLAR VALUES1

ABSTRACT: Sound water resource management requires comparison of benefits and costs. Many of the perceived benefits of water relate to providing instream flow for recreation and endangered fish. These uses have value but no prices to guide resource allocation. Techniques to estimate the dollar values of environmental benefits are presented and illustrated with several case studies. The results of the case studies show that emphasis on minimum instream flow allocates far less than the economically optimum amount of water to instream uses. Studies in Idaho demonstrated that optimum flows that balance benefits and costs can be ten times greater than minimum flows. The economic benefits of preserving public trust resources outweighed the replacement cost of water and power by a factor of fifty in California. While it is important to incorporate public preferences in water resource management, these economic survey techniques provide water managers with information not just on preference but how much the public is willing to pay for as well. This facilitates comparison of the public costs and benefits of instream flows.     

Rethinking the management of transboundary freshwater resources: a critical examination of modern international law and practice

Available freshwater stocks are being depleted and impaired on a widespread basis, with acute shortages an increasingly frequent condition in arid climates. In transboundary basins, water scarcity and pollution compound interstate tension and contribute to human suffering and ecological damage. This article provides theoretical perspectives on shared freshwater disputes and on the evolution of the international law of shared water resources. It argues that the UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (ratified by some countries, but not yet in force) is inadequate as a framework convention in terms of providing general obligations on the future parties or an institutional framework for future action. The paper suggests that three critical concepts be considered in future management of shared water resources: (1) the unitary character of watersheds (where the absence of extra-basin diversions allows); (2) joint or "communitarian" watershed management; and (3) the relevance of international trade to alleviating regional food stress, resulting from local water scarcity. Finally, it proposes the establishment of an international advisory body on shared water disputes, modelled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose role is codified in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.     

AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION CONTROL: IMPLICATIONS FROM THE RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM1

ABSTRACT: The Rural Clean Water Program has provided a unique opportunity to study the economics of agricultural nonpoint source pollution control. Several implications for improving the economic efficiency of future agricultural nonpoint source pollution control programs can be drawn from the results. First, individual projects should be targeted towards water bodies that have water quality problems causing economic damages. Considerable variation can exist among areas in the magnitude of economic damages, which may not be proportional to physical impacts. Second, the relative costs and effectiveness of the practices selected to reduce the delivery of pollutants can vary dramatically from one location to another. Early identification and emphasis on cost-effective BMPs can substantially reduce project costs and may make a project economically justifiable that would not otherwise be so. Finally, some projects that do not hive potential economic benefits from water quality improvements exceeding government cost may have on-farm benefits from reduced costs and increased long-term yields that are sufficient to make total benefits (water quality and on-farm) exceed costs.     

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND POLICY IN HAWAII: COMING FULL CIRCLE1

ABSTRACT: Changes in watershed management and policy in Hawaii are an instructive case study on the evolution of resource management from a traditional vertically integrated system, to a segmented central government‐based system, and now towards a community and watershed focus. The rise of European social and economic influences coupled with the precipitous decline in the Hawaiian population in the years following European contact led to the destruction of traditional management structures. Subsequently, the dominance of outside interests in Hawaii society and politics, culminating with the sugar industry, facilitated the unrestricted use and privatization of land and water resources. The post‐World War II era ushered in fundamental changes in Hawaii society and politics including renewed appreciation of traditional management practices. Government policies, increased community interest in resource management, and a renaissance in Hawaiian culture have converged in recent years to facilitate the development of new management structures that draw on both traditional and contemporary management. These structures hold great promise for improving Hawaiian watershed management. Our observations suggest that other jurisdictions may find it productive to examine traditional management and policy structures and try to relate them to contemporary community‐based resource management policies and activities.     

Tribal communities,the forests,the fisher folk and the river: whither water justice?

Excessive exploitation of and skewed access to dwindling water resources raise serious water justice concerns. Environmental justice movements and related literature have raised critical questions regarding the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of a development paradigm that is founded on excessive exploitation and appropriation of natural resources. This paper explores the growing relevance of a water justice framework that addresses both the social and ecological aspects of water use and appropriation, with reference to a four-decade long water conflict over the Chaliyar River in Kerala, South India. It highlights how ecosystem degradation and denial of justice go hand in hand. The paper argues that the framing and articulation of the conflict in a partisan manner led to the glossing over of certain critical features, thus preventing a full view of water injustices. It also failed to inform subsequent policies and practices in this regard.     

COMPUTER-OPTIMIZED STORMWATER TREATMENT (COST) PROGRAM: PHILADELPHIA CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: Two computer models, the Continuous Stormwater Pollution Simulation System (CSPSS) and the Computer Optimized Storm-water Treatment Program (COST), were developed to aid in performing water quality planning. This paper describes COST and its site specific applications to the Philadelphia urban area, using the results from an updated CSPSS receiving water simulation. COST provides a planning and conceptual design tool to identify the economically optimum combination of wet weather and dry weather pollution abatement alternatives. Economic analysis procedures incorporated are based on production theory and marginal cost analysis. This study demonstrates that by transforming BOD removal to reduction in low DO events, using CSPSS results, the benefits associated with pollutant removal can be accounted for explicitly by COST simulations. This is important because a pound of BOD removed from combined sewer overflow may be of more benefit to the receiving water than a pound of BOD removed from urban stormwater runoff. The selection of a pollution control strategy is often a difficult decision which should consider social, political, financial, and regulatory factors. It is suggested that such a selection can be based on evaluating the tradeoffs between total annual costs and receiving water improvements, as determined using the COST and CSPSS programs.     

南四湖供用水管理机制的完善

南四湖的供用水管理尚存在诸多不完善之处,诸如供用水管理权限不清、用水纠纷、法治建设落后于实际需要、执法难等问题一直困扰着当地经济和社会的发展。采取完善法治、优化现有管理体制、改善行政执法条件等措施,将有利于完善南四湖供用水管理机制,有利于南四湖水资源的管理与利用,促进当地经济和社会的可持续发展。     

POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND COSTS OF INGROUND STORAGE OF IMPORTED WATER1

ABSTRACT: In the near future, groundwater storage of imported water may become increasingly important as sites for surface storage are less available. This article explores the potential economic costs and benefits of groundwater storage. The costs include capital outlays, maintenance costs, land costs, legal costs, energy costs, and opportunity costs. The benefits include land cost savings, prevention of subsidence, aquifer protection, and higher economic use of surface lands that might be covered by a reservoir.     

MEASURING THE SITE-SPECIFIC RECREATION BENEFITS RESULTING FROM IMPROVED WATER QUALITY: AN UPPER BOUND APPROACH1

The estimation of the value of recreation benefits resulting from improved water quality is required for many purposes. In particular, the Water Pollution Control Act of 1980 requires the consideration of the reasonableness of costs of reducing water pollution in relation to benefits to be derived from establishing effluent standards (Clean Water Act of 1977). Recreation is often the most important benefit resulting from water quality improvement. Current methods used to calculate recreation benefits are either not site-specific or are expensive and controversial. This paper presents a relatively simple, inexpensive, and less controversial method of calculating site-specific recreation benefits resulting from improved water quality. It does this by producing an upper bound estimate which often is adequate for the relevant decision. The upper bound estimates is based on two assumptions: 1) there are alternative equivalent substitute sites for the newly augmented water quality site, and 2) the new augmented recreation opportunities at the site will be used to their maximum supply capacity. Clearly, if an upper bound benefit estimate in a cost-benefit ratio does not produce a favorable ratio, no other benefit estimate will. In cases where this estimate produces an ambiguous result resort must be had to other more precise methods of estimation.     

VALUING URBAN WATER ACQUISITIONS1

ABSTRACT: Municipalities typically seek additional water supplies whenever prospective population and economic growth suggests the inadequacy of currently available water supply. The benefit of supply enhancement is usually construed as avoiding debilitating water scarcity. A more effective approach to planning is to compare the benefits and costs of supply augmentation. The net present value of benefits for a supply increase in a representative Texas community is calculated for alternative scenarios relating to population growth, rate growth, and the temporal distribution of the increased supply. Consumer surplus measures are sensitive to all three of these factors and vary from $0 to over $4000 per acre-foot. A notable finding is that the added supply may offer zero values in cases where real water prices increase at an annualized rate of 4 percent (or greater) which is half the rate occurring in Texas from 1981–1985.     

A Transactions Cost Approach to the Theoretical Foundations of Water Markets1

Abstract: Water marketing is often cited as a means of alleviating the stresses attached to allocation of water use. Frequently, marketing is suggested in a context that implies substitution of competitive markets for the allocation based on the prior appropriation doctrine. This study examines water marketing from the perspective of a transactions cost approach to the private and broad social agreements (contracts) that support water allocation. It examines the major behavioral challenges faced by any contract, and the alternative approaches to those challenges, with respect to water allocation. It also examines the impact of market design on the existence of externalities, costs imposed by transactions on society and individuals not party to the transaction. It finds that the most robust water market designs will be found in systems with sufficient property rights protection to support investment, sufficient hydrologic information to provide accurate analysis of third party effects, conjunctive management of surface and groundwater, and a governance structure capable of administering the rules while not determining outcomes.