IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aare03/57880.html

Valuing Benefits of Increasing Irrigation Water Use Efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Gyles, Oliver

Abstract

A false expectation based on the notion that it is easy to raise water use efficiency, and that all increases in water use efficiency will also increase net social welfare, will lead to gross underestimation of the economic impact of reduced irrigation allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin. A conventional benefit:cost analysis of policy options founded on an understanding of biophysical processes, sound accounting principles, a knowledge of the appropriate response functions and the economics of best operating conditions will reduce the potential for government failure. Some myths, pitfalls and traps for the unwary analyst or policy maker are outlined.

Suggested Citation

  • Gyles, Oliver, 2003. "Valuing Benefits of Increasing Irrigation Water Use Efficiency," 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia 57880, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aare03:57880
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.57880
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/57880/files/2003_gyles.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.57880?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Randall, Alan, 1981. "Property Entitlements And Pricing Policies For A Maturing Water Economy," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 25(3), pages 1-26, December.
    2. Mike Young, 2002. "Blueprint for a Living Continent," Natural Resource Management Economics 02_008, Policy and Economic Research Unit, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, Australia.
    3. Mike Young, 2002. "A preliminary Assessment of the economic and social implications of Environmental Flow Scenarios for the Murray River System," Natural Resource Management Economics 02_009, Policy and Economic Research Unit, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, Australia.
    4. Alan Randall, 1981. "Property Entitlements And Pricing Policies For A Maturing Water Economy," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 25(3), pages 195-220, December.
    5. John Quiggin, 1988. "Murray River Salinity—An Illustrative Model," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(3), pages 635-645.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alistair Watson, 2003. "Approaches to Increasing River Flows," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 36(2), pages 213-224, June.
    2. Lin Crase & Suzanne O’Keefe, 2009. "The paradox of national water savings: A critique of “Water for the Future”," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 45-62.

    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. Mallawaarachchi, Thilak & Auricht, Christopher & Loch, Adam & Adamson, David & Quiggin, John, 2020. "Water allocation in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin: Managing change under heightened uncertainty," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 345-369.
    2. 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.
    3. Bolinches, Antonio & Blanco-Gutiérrez, Irene & Zubelzu, Sergio & Esteve, Paloma & Gómez-Ramos, Almudena, 2022. "A method for the prioritization of water reuse projects in agriculture irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    4. Ansink, Erik & Weikard, Hans-Peter, 2009. "Contested water rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 247-260, June.
    5. Rosegrant, M. W. & Ringler, C. & McKinney, D. C. & Cai, X. & Keller, A. & Donoso, G., 2000. "Integrated economic-hydrologic water modeling at the basin scale: the Maipo river basin," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 33-46, December.
    6. Adam Loch & Henning Bjornlund & Ronald McIver, 2011. "Achieving Targeted Environmental Flows: Alternative Allocation and Trading Models under Scarce Supply—Lessons from the Australian Reform Process," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(4), pages 745-760, August.
    7. José A. Gómez-Limón & Yolanda Martínez Martínez, 2004. "Multicriteria Modelling of Irrigation Water Market at Basin Level," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2004/26, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    8. John G. Tisdell, 2011. "Water markets in Australia: an experimental analysis of alternative market mechanisms," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 55(4), pages 500-517, October.
    9. Palomo-Hierro, Sara & Loch, Adam & Pérez-Blanco, C. Dionisio, 2022. "Improving water markets in Spain: Lesson-drawing from the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    10. Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Claudia Ringler, 2006. "Water Reallocation: Challenges, Threats, and Solutions for the Poor," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2006-41, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    11. Alauddin, Mohammad & Quiggin, John, 2008. "Agricultural intensification, irrigation and the environment in South Asia: Issues and policy options," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 111-124, March.
    12. Williamson, Brendon & Villano, Renato A. & Fleming, Euan M., 2008. "Structuring Exotic Options Contracts on Water to Improve the Efficiency of Resource Allocation in the Water Spot Market," 2008 Conference (52nd), February 5-8, 2008, Canberra, Australia 5992, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    13. Juliane Haensch & Sarah Ann Wheeler & Alec Zuo & Henning Bjornlund, 2016. "The Impact of Water and Soil Salinity on Water Market Trading in the Southern Murray–Darling Basin," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(01), pages 1-26, March.
    14. Carlos Gómez & C. Pérez-Blanco, 2014. "Simple Myths and Basic Maths About Greening Irrigation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(12), pages 4035-4044, September.
    15. Pérez-Blanco, C.D. & Gutiérrez-Martín, C., 2017. "Buy me a river: Use of multi-attribute non-linear utility functions to address overcompensation in agricultural water buyback," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 6-20.
    16. Stephen Bell & John Quiggin, "undated". "The Metagovernance of Markets: The Politics of Water Management in Australia," Murray-Darling Program Working Papers WP6M06, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    17. John Quiggin, 2006. "Repurchase of renewal rights: a policy option for the National Water Initiative ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(3), pages 425-435, September.
    18. A. Asciuto & V. Borsellino & M. D'Acquisto & C.P. Di Franco & M. Di Gesaro & E. Schimmenti, 2015. "Monumental trees and their existence value: the case study of an Italian natural park," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 61(2), pages 55-61.
    19. Quiggin, John C., 2001. "Environmental economics and the Murray-Darling river system," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 45(01), pages 1-28.
    20. Lisa Yu-Ting Lee & Tihomir Ancev, 2009. "Two Decades of Murray-Darling Water Management: A River of Funding, a Trickle of Achievement," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 16(1), pages 5-24.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ags:aare03:57880. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaresea.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.