IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/drm/wpaper/2012-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Water Conservation versus Soil Salinity Control

Author

Listed:
  • Alain Ayong Le Kama
  • Agnès Tomini

Abstract

This paper tackles the increasingly significant problem of irrigation-induced soil salinity within a groundwater management model. Irrigation can result not only in heavier salt concentrations, but also in the removal of salt from the soil through return flows. Given these contradictory observations, we are interested in the effects on soil salt concentration if irrigation efficiency is improved. We develop a model of salt concentration patterns in both soil and groundwater. We introduce a negative externality to the production process by assuming that soil degradation due to higher soil salinity affects total factor productivity. Within this framework, we show that in the presence of this externality, increasing irrigation efficiency can lead to higher or lower soil salt concentration, depending on the social cost of transferring salt from one reservoir to another.

Suggested Citation

  • Alain Ayong Le Kama & Agnès Tomini, 2012. "Water Conservation versus Soil Salinity Control," EconomiX Working Papers 2012-8, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    • Handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://economix.fr/pdf/dt/2012/WP_EcoX_2012-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santiago Rubio & Begoña Casino, 2003. "Strategic Behavior and Efficiency in the Common Property Extraction of Groundwater," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 73-87, September.
    2. Steven S. Vickner & Dana L. Hoag & W. Marshall Frasier & James C. Ascough, 1998. "A Dynamic Economic Analysis of Nitrate Leaching in Corn Production under Nonuniform Irrigation Conditions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(2), pages 397-408.
    3. Phoebe Koundouri, 2004. "Current Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 703-740, December.
    4. Margriet F. Caswell & David Zilberman, 1986. "The Effects of Well Depth and Land Quality on the Choice of Irrigation Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(4), pages 798-811.
    5. Douglas M. Larson & Gloria E. Helfand & Brett W. House, 1996. "Second-Best Tax Policies to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(4), pages 1108-1117.
    6. Wichelns, Dennis, 1999. "An economic model of waterlogging and salinization in arid regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 475-491, September.
    7. Roseta-Palma, Catarina, 2002. "Groundwater Management When Water Quality Is Endogenous," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 93-105, July.
    8. Bill Provencher, 1993. "A Private Property Rights Regime to Replenish a Groundwater Aquifer," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 69(4), pages 325-340.
    9. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    10. Moreaux, Michel & Reynaud, Arnaud, 2006. "Urban freshwater needs and spatial cost externalities for coastal aquifers: A theoretical approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 163-186, March.
    11. Burness, H. Stuart & Brill, Thomas C., 2001. "The role for policy in common pool groundwater use," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 19-40, January.
    12. Gisser, Micha, 1983. "Groundwater: Focusing on the Real Issue," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(6), pages 1001-1027, December.
    13. Frank M. Gollop & Gregory P. Swinand, 1998. "From Total Factor to Total Resource Productivity: An Application to Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 577-583.
    14. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Umetsu, Chieko, 2003. "Basinwide water management: a spatial model," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 1-23, January.
    15. Provencher Bill & Burt Oscar, 1993. "The Externalities Associated with the Common Property Exploitation of Groundwater," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 139-158, March.
    16. Erik Lichtenberg, 1989. "Land Quality, Irrigation Development, and Cropping Patterns in the Northern High Plains," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(1), pages 187-194.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alain Ayong Le Kama & Agnès Tomini, 2012. "Water Conservation versus Soil Salinity Control," Working Papers hal-04141151, HAL.
    2. Phoebe Koundouri, 2004. "Current Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 703-740, December.
    3. Catarina Roseta-Palma, 2003. "Joint Quantity/Quality Management of Groundwater," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 89-106, September.
    4. Phoebe Koundouri, 2003. "Potential for groundwater management: Gisser-Sanchez effect reconsidered," DEOS Working Papers 0307, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    5. Katrin Erdlenbruch & Raphael Soubeyran & Mabel Tidball & Agnes Tomini, 2012. "(Anti-)Coordination Problems with Scarce Water Resources," Working Papers 12-28, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Sep 2012.
    6. Raphaël Soubeyran & Mabel Tidball & Agnes Tomini & Katrin Erdlenbruch, 2015. "Rainwater Harvesting and Groundwater Conservation: When Endogenous Heterogeneity Matters," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(1), pages 19-34, September.
    7. Du Bois, Rodrigo Salcedo & Macias, Miguel Angel Gutierrez, 2013. "Cooperation makes it happen? Groundwater management in Aguascalientes, Mexico: An experimental approach," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151139, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Brozovic, Nicholas & Sunding, David L. & Zilberman, David, 2004. "Measuring The Gains From Management Of Spatially Heterogeneous Resources: The Case Of Groundwater," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20240, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Hellegers, Petra & Zilberman, David & van Ierland, Ekko, 2001. "Dynamics of agricultural groundwater extraction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 303-311, May.
    10. Knapp, Keith C. & Baerenklau, Kenneth A., 2006. "Ground Water Quantity and Quality Management: Agricultural Production and Aquifer Salinization over Long Time Scales," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-26, December.
    11. Knapp, Keith C. & Franklin, Bradley, 2012. "Sustainability Economics of Groundwater Usage and Management," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124959, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Esteban, Encarna & Albiac, José, 2011. "Groundwater and ecosystems damages: Questioning the Gisser-Sánchez effect," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2062-2069, September.
    13. Pfeiffer, Lisa & Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia, 2012. "Groundwater pumping and spatial externalities in agriculture," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 16-30.
    14. James Roumasset & Christopher Wada, 2012. "The Economics of Groundwater," Working Papers 201211, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    15. Godwin Kwabla Ekpe & Anna A. Klis, 2023. "Spillover Effects in Irrigated Agriculture from the Groundwater Commons," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(3), pages 469-507, November.
    16. Hubert Stahn & Agnès Tomini, 2015. "Rainwater Harvesting under Endogenous Capacity of Storage : a Solution to Aquifer Preservation," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 119-120, pages 209-234.
    17. Eric C. Edwards, 2016. "What Lies Beneath? Aquifer Heterogeneity and the Economics of Groundwater Management," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 453-491.
    18. Roseta-Palma, Catarina, 2002. "Groundwater Management When Water Quality Is Endogenous," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 93-105, July.
    19. Reinelt, Peter, 2020. "Spatial-dynamic seawater intrusion and pumping cost externalities in a confined aquifer," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Jean-Christophe Pereau & Lauriane Mouysset & Luc Doyen, 2018. "Groundwater Management in a Food Security Context," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 319-336, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Groundwater Management; Optimal Control of Water Consumption; Soil Salinity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerie Mignon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/modemfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.