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Double trouble: the importance of accounting for and defining water entitlements consistent with hydrological realities

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  • Young, Michael D.
  • McColl, James C.

Abstract

When entitlements to access water in fully allocated river and aquifers are specified in a manner that is inconsistent with the ways that water arrives, flows across and flows through land, inefficient investment and water use is the result. Using Australia’s Murray Darling Basin as an example, this paper attempts to reveal the adverse economic and water management consequences of entitlement and water sharing regime misspecification in regimes that allow water trading. Markets trade water products as specified. When entitlements and the water sharing system are not designed in a way that has hydrological integrity, the market trades the water management regime into trouble. Options for specification of entitlement and allocation regimes in ways that have hydrological integrity are presented. It is reasoned, that if entitlement and allocation regime are set up in ways that have hydrological integrity, the result should be a regime that can autonomously adjust to climatic shifts, changes in prices and changes in technology without compromising environmental objectives.

Suggested Citation

  • Young, Michael D. & McColl, James C., 2009. "Double trouble: the importance of accounting for and defining water entitlements consistent with hydrological realities," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 53(1), pages 1-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aareaj:161907
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.161907
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    1. M. D. Young & J. C. McColl, 2003. "Robust Reform: The Case for a New Water Entitlement System for Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 36(2), pages 225-234, June.
    2. Deborah C. Peterson, 2006. "Precaution: principles and practice in Australian environmental and natural resource management ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(4), pages 469-489, December.
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    1. Nordblom, Tom & Finlayson, John D. & Hume, Iain H. & Kelly, Jason A., 2009. "Supply and Demand for Water use by New Forest Plantations: a market to balance increasing upstream water use with downstream community, industry and environmental use?," Research Reports 280785, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Research Economists.
    2. Peggy Schrobback & David Adamson & John Quiggin, 2009. "Turning Water into Carbon: Carbon sequestration vs. water flow in the Murray-Darling Basin," Murray-Darling Program Working Papers WP2M09, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    3. John Rolfe & Brenda Dyack, 2010. "Testing for convergent validity between travel cost and contingent valuation estimates of recreation values in the Coorong, Australia ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(4), pages 583-599, October.
    4. Productivity Commission, 2009. "Government Drought Support," Inquiry Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 46.
    5. Wheeler, Sarah & Bjornlund, Henning & Zuo, Alec & Shanahan, Martin, 2010. "The changing profile of water traders in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District, Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(9), pages 1333-1343, September.
    6. Glyn Wittwer & Janine Dixon, 2012. "Upgrading irrigation infrastructure in the Murray Darling Basin: is it worth it?," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-228, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    7. Peggy Schrobback & David Adamson & John Quiggin, 2011. "Turning Water into Carbon: Carbon Sequestration and Water Flow in the Murray–Darling Basin," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(1), pages 23-45, May.
    8. Hatton MacDonald, Darla & Morrison, Mark D. & Rose, John M. & Boyle, Kevin J., 2011. "Valuing a multistate river: the case of the River Murray," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 55(3), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Crossman, Neville D. & Connor, Jeffrey D. & Bryan, Brett A. & Summers, David M. & Ginnivan, John, 2010. "Reconfiguring an irrigation landscape to improve provision of ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1031-1042, March.
    10. Garrick, Dustin & Whitten, Stuart M. & Coggan, Anthea, 2013. "Understanding the evolution and performance of water markets and allocation policy: A transaction costs analysis framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 195-205.
    11. Nordblom, T.L. & Christy, B.P. & Finlayson, J.D. & Roberts, A.M. & Kelly, J.A., 2010. "Least cost land-use changes for targeted catchment salt load and water yield impacts in south eastern Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(6), pages 811-823, June.
    12. Bryan, Brett Anthony & Crossman, Neville David, 2013. "Impact of multiple interacting financial incentives on land use change and the supply of ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 60-72.
    13. Tingey-Holyoak, Joanne & Pisaniello, John & Buss, Peter & Mayer, Wolfgang, 2021. "The importance of accounting-integrated information systems for realising productivity and sustainability in the agricultural sector," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. Skurray, James H. & Roberts, E.J. & Pannell, David J., 2013. "Hydrological challenges to groundwater trading: lessons from south-west Western Australia," Working Papers 161073, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    15. James H. Skurray & Ram Pandit & David J. Pannell, 2013. "Institutional impediments to groundwater trading: the case of the Gnangara groundwater system of Western Australia," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(7), pages 1046-1072, September.
    16. Young, Michael D., 2014. "Designing water abstraction regimes for an ever-changing and ever-varying future," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 32-38.
    17. Tingey-Holyoak, Joanne Louise, 2014. "Water sharing risk in agriculture: Perceptions of farm dam management accountability in Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 123-133.
    18. Nordblom, Thomas L. & Finlayson, John D. & Hume, Iain H., 2012. "Upstream demand for water use by new tree plantations imposes externalities on downstream irrigated agriculture and wetlands," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 56(4), pages 1-20, December.
    19. Claire Settre & Jeff Connor & Sarah Ann Wheeler, 2017. "Reviewing the Treatment of Uncertainty in Hydro-economic Modeling of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(03), pages 1-35, July.

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