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Effectiveness of Two Water Conservation Policies: An Integrated Modeling Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Biswa R. Das ,
David B. Willis  and
Jeffrey Johnson
Biswa R. Das
Affiliation:
Department Of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
David B. Willis
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Jeffrey Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
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Abstract

Agriculture in the Texas High Plains depends entirely on the Ogallala Aquifer. Texas enacted water conservation legislation to address declining reserves in the aquifer. We developed an integrated regional water policy model that links a hydrology model with an economic optimization model to estimate policy impacts with respect to economic cost and water conservation. Testing the effectiveness of two policies, a groundwater extraction tax and extraction quotas, we observe that neither significantly inhibits groundwater use. Although both policies conserve similar amounts of groundwater, the regional cost of the tax policy to agriculture is more than the quota policy.

Keywords

integrated regional water policy modelTexas High Plainswater conservation policyhydrology modeleconomic optimization modelOgallala Aquifertax policyquota policyQ30Q31Q38
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , November 2010 , pp. 695 - 710
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2010

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