Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Introduction of all participants

Brian, Glenn, Doug, Greg, Kristi, and Danelle offer tribute to Ari Michelson.

Garth notes this is Glenn Schaible’s last meeting.  Glenn indicates the group has been productive with special sessions at conferences, contributions to books, among others.  Glenn has research files for all the reports of the past projects.

8:30-10:30am State/Agency Reports

Garth Taylor, Idaho: Idaho has severe problems with recharging the snake river plain aquifer.  Have problems with reservoir management.  All Western state will be concerned with conjunctive use.

Jonathan Yoder, Washington: Lots of legal battles about conjunctive use.  Have to show legal right to use water.  Water banks have popped up.  Director of state water resources center.  Supply and demand analysis of the water for the state.  Looking at the presence of chemical plumes.

Jeremiah Asher, Michigan: Assistant director of the institute for water research.  Look at water quality related to Erie basin and algal blooms. Started a program with the great lakes initiative.  Provide producers with a suite of tools to find places to put best management project to reduce phosphorous and sediment.  Tool with the national weather service connect conservation districts and farmers with a pay for performance system. Southwest Michigan needs to come up with a plan to manage water resources.  Have to show withdrawals do not affect fish streams. Chloe is doing work on efficiency gains from second best policies for climate and agriculture mitigation. 

Todd Guilfoos, Rhode Island: Publish paper on groundwater modeling on the landscape level loss of the aquifer and uncertainty.  Look at international borders and groundwater issues.  Two satellites orbit earth and measure groundwater depletion with gravity.  Works well in stable environments. Look at the temporal aspects of groundwater markets.  Is it worth the complexity to look at the spatial and temporal aspects?  Former student is at the EPA. He does optimization with MODFLOW.

Greg Torell, Texas: Remotely sensed soil data. Dispute with Mexico and US about the salinity issues.  Texas has a state water plan that uses bottom-up planning.  In these reports, there are demand and supply forecasts. 

Kent Kovacs, Arkansas: Completed 2016 Mississippi Delta Irrigation Survey.  Look at the WTP for investment in conjunctive water management.  Several papers look at the impacts of groundwater decline on the changes in crop mix and the resulting changes in water quality and carbon accounting.  Look at how lateral flows influence central management of groundwater resources.

Kristi Hansen, Wyoming: Co-guest edit a special issue from a conference. Look at the use of irrigation technology to use groundwater use more efficiently. Mountain valley growers’ conversion to center pivot will change the ecosystem services.  How hard would it be to free up water?  There are a number of ecological tradeoffs and a proposal has gone out to explore these issues.

Eric Edwards, Utah: Looked at the way people could conserve water.  Compare various practices to save water.  Great Salt Lake is declining and is at almost the lowest level ever.  This is due to water withdrawals.  Need to put more water back in the lake.  Cost efficiency curve if you use alternative techniques to put water back in the stream.  Get this at a low cost with trading.  Journal of Economic History paper shows irrigated agriculture explains most of the yield gains. Look at the basins in CA who receive the most benefits from regulation, which are the basins who use the most water.  The basins who face the largest transaction costs have the lowest benefits.

Jeff Peterson, Minnesota: Emerging program on urban storm water management, wastewater, and reuse.  Use remote sensing to monitor the lakes.  Water quality impact is largest in the early spring months.  Winter hardy crops or perennial crops bred at the Minnesota for their potential to lower runoff.  Practices that improve soil health also influence water quality.  There is irrigation in the central part of the state because of the sandy soils.  There is a little concern about long run depletion.  There is intermittent depletion.  Lots of nutrient that leach down into the aquifer.  Nutrient contamination in streams from the recharge by the aquifer.

Glenn Schaible, ERS: Reformulate FRIS for 2019 and the ERS and NASS seek our input.  Farm size is now to be included for all the states.  Farm size is critical to level of irrigation investment since 76% of applied irrigation comes from large-scale farm.  Most irrigated farms receiving technical assistance are low scale farms. More than 90% of irrigated farms finance their investments privately.  Data products are on the ERS website.  Definitions related to irrigated agriculture are available.  Currently working on AREI of broad resource indicators, and there is a chapter on irrigation.  RCPP is for both water and land.  The authorizing legislation is very flexible.  Helps to get away from the perspective of giving money to move into the formation of partnerships.  Some partnerships are innovation, but others have the give me money perspective.  Leroy Hansen and Chuck Rosch: JSWC article looks at the costs of restoring prairie pothole region.  Karina and Nick have an agreement for the Oglalla reservoir.  Kent and Ariel have an agreement with Steve Wallander for aquifer recharge at the southern and western regions.

Worked with NASS on the FRIS development for every version since 1979.  Last version integrates horticulture with the outside crops.  Encourages the group to make recommendations for new modules in the FRIS.  New questions come from ERS and this group.  We need more information on price structure, water management, and governance structure.  Also would be good to know if farmers idle to dryland and non-irrigated land in response to drought.  Karina indicates that people thinks in terms of acre-inches rather than acre-feet.

Alex Maas, Idaho: Look at allocation decision around reservoirs changes.  Did experimentation to see how information in common property resources change the amount of pumping for each group.  The co-benefits realized depend on the water institution.  Look at hedonic valuation in terms of flooding and sustainable water supplies.  Soil diversity matters but the monocultures are what increase yield.  Yield declines are present around the buffer strips.       

Doug parker, UC: Work with David Zilberman on the history of drip irrigation.  Originally, drip came from Israel.  Look at the value of drip irrigation.  Buried drip in processing tomatoes was initially a fail. Changed how the drip was done and there is now a double in yield and 57% increase in water efficiency.  Set up weather station to track ET across the state.  There are 100 stations.  The management of the stations is what makes the difference for the benefits.  Get GHG reduction funds to cost-share improvement for farms.  Teach people to manage an irrigation system with these funds.  Want growers to have nutrient reduction plans and create the curriculum.  Now they will do an evaluation of the benefits.  Encourages the group to create an economics special issue for UCOWR.

Stephan Kroll and Christopher Goemans, Colorado: Build on eco-hydrology models. Groundwater management districts are working with them.  North is in favor of fees and south is in favor of quota.  Along the front-range, developers need to show legal availability of water.  Large amount of money just to hook up to the water grid.  Need mechanisms for the payment of infrastructure to supply water for agriculture and development. 

Brian Hurd, New Mexico: Frank Ward and Greg Torell look at conjunctive water uses.  Bureau of Reclamation funding to look at brackish water use.  Water supply enhancement in southern New Mexico.  Look at coupled system with hydro-economic model that Frank Ward and Booker have used to examine the response to climate change over the years.  Use choice techniques to evaluate how valuable enhanced water supply is to them.  Mexico is pumping groundwater at a faster rate to get it from the US side.  Lawsuit between Mexico and New Mexico on groundwater.

Krishna Paudel, Louisiana: Completed soybean irrigation survey with alluvial aquifer. There are issue of salinity from underneath the aquifer.  Find the WTP to convert to dry land crops.  Look at consumptive water efficiency in conjunctive water use. Another study examines transboundary water issues with Arkansas and Texas.  Look at BMPs in SWAT to identify if there are complementary practices.

Karina Schoengold, Nebraska: Nebraska system of NRDs mean significant heterogeneity across policies.  Look at the adaption to these policies.  ERS project looks at the unintended effects on aquifer.  Change the land cover, and you change the aquifer conditions.  There is some evidence of grasslands in CRP lead to lower recharge assuming no change in withdrawals.  Find different results in Kansas versus Nebraska.  Master’s student looks at well characteristics in determining contract decisions.  Student did a survey in Ghana on improved water quality.  Another project looks at transboundary issues in Central Asia.

Jeffrey Mullen, Georgia: Work with an agricultural engineer to put together a smart app.  Tells how much farmers spend on water in their field.  There is no volumetric charge, only energy cost.   Series of water councils in GA do water planning.  What would they be WTA to have a higher septic density.  Have a student geologist doing survey in northern Africa and the Middle East.  Have a NIFA proposal to look at breeders on perennials, and annuals for sorghum, wheat, and maize.  A focus is on accurate data for water withdrawals with ET versus heuristics.          

Nick Brozovic, Nebraska: Group exists for multi-disciplinary research.  Nebraska has conflicts between groundwater and surface water irrigators.  Disagreement with southern neighbors has led to large policy changes in the state.  Republican River litigation, the Nebraska districts have sued the state in 2012 because of the losses in stream flow.  Lawsuit thrown out. 

Examine groundwater management and governance.  Eight case studies looking at different parts of the country.  High productivity irrigated agriculture, but current technologies and innovations lower than what we would want.  Find limited adoption of soil moisture probes and drones with innovative financing. AguaCrop is released with a MatLab platform, and also plan to move to R and Python.  Model shows that capacity constraints matter more than the cost of pumping.

Farmers are not interested in water conservation, but they are interested in energy costs.  Real time energy cost data is not available from farmers.  Water markets indicate there is a lot of informal water trading.  Collaborations available with the International Water Policy Institute and Food for Water Institute.

Nathan Hendricks, Kansas: AFRI grant looks at collective action efforts to conserve groundwater.  Use a Board of Directors mechanism to encourage groundwater conservation. Publish paper with a graduate student using AguaCrop to examine well capacity and water holding capacity.  Publish paper with Peterson on potential productivity gains with climate change.  ERL article looks at the offset of wheat yield stress from irrigation. Gabe Sampson looks at peer effects on irrigation adoption in surrounding areas.  Another paper looks at how farmers respond to water restrictions with junior and senior water rights.  Other project examines land values responses to water rights and saturated thickness.

10:30-10:40am Break

10:40-12:00pm State/Agency Reports

Lucia Levers, Minnesota: Hired to look at the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  Work with SWAT and climate models to break up monoculture techniques and evaluate what the economic side of this is.  Use a survey to look at different farming techniques.  Glenn suggests contacts with Roger Classen and Marc Ribaubo.

Dannele Peck, Wyoming: Complete first year with Climate Change Hub, ARS. Co-organized with Kristi a session at UCOWR.  See as a journal editor the connection between what the group does and what the climate hubs do.  Climate hubs help ranchers to be climate resilient and adaptive.  Recommend we have our work posted on the climate hub website.  Look for decision support tools to connect with extension agents and farmers.  Last piece is outreach and education.  Want to complement extension efforts.  Climate hubs have been around for three years. Have good connection with weather and science friends with weather data.  Focus on rangeland and livestock management. Want to get modules into the classroom to help producers better adapt to climate change.

Travis Warziniack, Forest Service: Look at sediment runoff associated with landscapes affected by fire.  Examine the pay for performance to combat fire risk.  Collect money from water utilities to improve fire management and green infrastructure for alternative land use categories.  Involved in Forest Service planning efforts to examine the supply and demand for water at six-digit HUC scale.  Hydrologists figure out the water yield side.  Last big assessment was in 2010 using a four-digit HUC scale.  Determine adaptation changes to close demand and supply gaps.

Margaret Gitau, Purdue: Analyze in-stream flows, water quality, and weather data more effectively to downscale for climate scenarios.  This is to address the phosphorous flow to Lake Erie.  Look beyond the weather data basics to examine the distributions of the data to understand what this does to nutrient loadings.  More realizations are necessary for a good downscale analysis for the Western Erie Basin.

Taro Mieno, Nebraska: Look at the moral hazards associated with crop insurance. Previous literature ignores that crop insurance influences input use.  The transition from a static to a dynamic model suggests that there is not much of a moral hazard associated with nitrogen input use.  Another project measures the impact of soil moisture sensors that detect moisture deeper in the soil than with the hand. 

12:00-1:30pm Lunch (at local restaurants)

1:30- 2:30pm NIFA update; Location and dates of 2018 Meeting, selection of Secretary for

2017-2018.

• Michael Harrington shared this link about ways to make water management programs more engaging and effective: https://www.multistateresearchimpacts.org/single-post/2017/06/21/Improving-the-Management-of-Our-Water-Resources-NC-1190-2011-2016

• Karina moved to accept the minutes
• Dannele seconded
• Last year’s minutes were approved.

• Nick moved for Alexander Maas to be elected as Secretrary conditional on becoming an official member of the group
• Karina seconded.
• Motion approved.

Proposed locations for the next meeting were El Paso, Fort Collins, and Boise.  Straw poll chose the destination to be Fort Collins. 

Potential dates are October 25 and 26^th. 

2:30-2:40pm  Break

2:40-4:00pm   Dannelle Peck and Todd Guilfoos.  Overview of current project and planning for application process for next project.

• Project proposal is available online at http://www.nimss.org/projects/view/mrp/outline/16396
• Dannelle’s presentation is available at https://prezi.com/_d7rbkjnucqg/w3190-management-and-policy-challenges-in-a-water-scarce-world/
• Objective 1 is at the farm-level, Objective 2 is at the watershed-level, and objective 3 is at policy-level

• Important upcoming deadlines
• October 2018: brainstorm next proposal
• January 2019: proposal due
• June 2019: respond to reviews
• End of June 2019: final due
• Milestones and impacts are very important to document. Especially important to document if the meeting each year provides multi-state collaborations.
• Make sure any stakeholder interactions are included in the report.

Current themes are conjunctive water management, energy and water use, hydro-economic modeling.

Members of the 2018-2019 proposal team:

Margaret Gitau, Krishna Paudel, Todd Guilfoos will work on the writing.  Nick Brozovic will help with the scope.  Kristi Hansen and Karina Schoengold will work on the statement of issues and justification.  Kent Kovacs will work on the outcomes and projected impacts. 

Meeting adjourned

Objective 1

McCann (Missouri)

Publication: Fan, Yubing, Laura McCann and Hua Qin. “Households” Adoption of Drought Tolerant Plants: An Adaptation to Climate Change?”Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics May 2017, 42 (2):236-254.           

Conference presentation: Fan, Yubing and Laura McCann.  “Farmers” Adoption of Pressure Irrigation Systems and Scientific Irrigation Scheduling Practices: An Application of Multilevel Models? American Journal of Agricultural Economics (July 2017) Published On-line at http//:agecon.lib.umn.edu. 

Poster: Fan, Y., D.W. Shin, L. McCann and S. Park. “Adoption of Solar Irrigation Pumps on U.S. Farms: A Multilevel Model Analysis.”Selected Poster Presentation at the AAEA annual meetings in Chicago, IL, July 30-August 2, 2017.

Dinar and Grismer (California)

Work on adoption of water management technologies and practices by Avocado Growers In California as affected by bio-physical and economics factors.        

Modeling resilience of farming sector in desert and southern California regions as affected by bio-physical and economic factors.                           

Use of recycled water for agriculture is a long-term water strategy in California and use of recycled water by growers in the northern Salinas Valley since 1998 provides a unique opportunity to evaluate this strategy.  Accumulation of rootzone and groundwater salinity is a primary concern associated with regular use of reclaimed water.  We use data from a long-term field experiment (2000 to 2013) considering application of a range of blended fractions of recycled water and groundwater on different field crops using surface and pressurized irrigation systems to calibrate a rootzone salinity model to then evaluate accumulation trend and distribution of soil salinity across a 91.4 cm soil profile. The model results are used to describe the long-term salt transport and transformation in the soil accounting for meteorological daily records, crop evapotranspiration (ET), soil textural parameters, crop type, irrigation system and irrigation water quality.  As with many distributed hydrologic models, model application requires determination of several input parameters that have varying levels of uncertainty.  Two techniques were used to guide model parameter estimation, relative sensitivity and eventually validation of the salinity model.  First, the Method of Morris, or Elementary Effect test is used to identify the input factors that have negligible influence on the output.  Subsequently, a more time-consuming variance based method of Sobol was used for factor fixing. Of the 33 parameters requiring specification, the sensitivity analysis indicated that only 7 were critical to the model output results and these were used for model calibration and validation.  While model simulations successfully captured long-term trends in soil salinity, model predictions underestimated soil water electric conductivity (ECsw) for high ECsw samples. The model prediction error for the validation case ranged from 2.6% to 39%.  Model fitting is improved by accounting for chemical addition to the soil as well as plant uptake of fertilizer and solutes.  Salinity addition associated with fertilizer application add to prediction problems over time. As well, the complex spatial variability in the salinity field resulting from localized leaching in drip-irrigated fields contributes to modeling error.  Application of the global sensitivity analysis with this model indicates that this method will help with field application and adoption of this salinity model within water management planning. Calibration and validation results also suggest that this approach could be used to evaluate long-term salinity trends and reference, or benchmark salinities for fields managed with treated wastewater to preserve soil health accounting for the seasonal, annual and decadal hydrology of the region.    

Beneficial use of treated, or recycled wastewater is increasing in California, especially that used in irrigated agriculture. Growers in the northern Salinas Valley have been using recycled water since 1998.  One of the main concerns regarding use of recycled water in agricultural land is soil salinity accumulation, salt loading to groundwater and surface water resources. This study is undertaken to benchmark treated wastewater irrigation practice to illustrate the dynamics in the long-term using average seasonal root zone salinity (ECeS), drainage salt load (Sd) and surface runoff salt load (Sr) as key variables. Simulation scenarios are based on cropping patterns over 13-years from 2000 to 2012 in the six experiment sites in Castroville in the Salinas Valley.  The numerical simulation of long-term field scale variably saturated subsurface flow and transport is conducted using the Isidoro & Grattan salinity model which has been calibrated and validated for the study site.  This is a one-dimensional flow and transport model which describes the long-term salt transport and transformation in the soil accounting for meteorological daily records, crop evapotranspiration (ETc), soil textural parameters, crop type, types of irrigation, irrigation water quality and capillary rise.  Model simulations included determination of benchmark scenarios for fields irrigated with a range of recycled- and ground-water blends.  Simulation results show that the seasonal root zone salinity remains below stress thresholds for all crops grown in this region including relatively salt-sensitive crops.  Rainfall and applied water EC predominantly effect the accumulation of salts in the root zone profile, however, for two sites the types of crops selected (thus ETc) had a significant effect on soil EC.  Annual salt load with runoff was ten-fold higher than drainage salt load. Cumulative salts with drainage ranged from 0 to 368 kg/ha and cumulative salts with runoff ranged from 2,834 to 8,068 kg/ha. Perennial artichoke cropping results in minimal salt loading.  This study concludes that the potential for the salinization of the Salinas River as surface runoff pick up salts that are concentrated at the soil surface at the end of the growing season especially for fields irrigated with drip and/or sprinkler systems is an important threat in fields irrigated with saline waters.                    

Guilfoos (Rhode Island)

I have developed a model which simplifies the spatial aspects of hydrology to investigate groundwater management with exhaustion of the aquifer and uncertainty if precipitation.

Paudel (Louisiana State)

Salinity has significant economic impact in the region.    

Farmers using center pivot system are more efficient than those using a furrow irrigation system.

Peck (USDA ARS)

Peck (USDA) connected Bill Golden (KSU & Ogallala Water Project) with Jordan Steele (KFMA) and Shane Ruff (KFMA) to introduce them to a new graduate student working on groundwater issues in northwest Kansas. March 2017. 

Peck (USDA) co-authored a Climatic Change article, "Vulnerability of grazing and confined livestock in the Northern Great Plains to projected mid and late-21st century climate" with multidisciplinary team from WY, TX, MT, ND, CO, SD.               

Peck (USDA) was invited by colleagues in MT to give a presentation to 50 weather/climate/agricultural experts about the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hubs and its multi-state partnerships at the Montana Climate Mini-Summit, Missoula, MT, Sept 7, 2017.        

Peck (USDA) was invited by colleagues in CO to present "USDA Climate Hubs: finding rays of hope in a cloudy forecast" to 70 bison producers at the International Bison Conference, Big Sky, MT, Jul 5, 2017

Mullen (Georgia)

New projections of agricultural water withdrawals out to 2050 have been developed for the State of Georgia. These projections are used directly by the state’s Regional Water Planning Councils to complete gap analyses and identify and develop solutions to potential water shortages in the future.  These estimates were done at the county level and aggregated for each Water Planning Council.      

Initiated new analysis to compare the relative accuracy of water use estimates generated by econometric methods versus crop growth simulations.

Hendricks and Sampson (Kansas)

Hendricks served as major professor for dissertation completed by PhD student Rulianda Wibowo entitled "Optimal irrigation strategy with limited water availability accounting for the risk from weather uncertainty."         

Hendricks served as major professor for thesis completed by Masters of Agribusiness student Frances Bretz entitled "Using Average Net Returns and Risk Measures to Compare Irrigation Management Strategies."

Published an article that finds irrigation offset wheat yield reductions due to increased temperatures.    

A working paper titled, “The Role of Peer Effects in Natural Resource Appropriation - The Case of Groundwater” was completed during the reporting period and submitted to a journal. The paper describes how peer-to-peer interactions have affected the adoption of groundwater for agricultural irrigation using data from Kansas for 1950-2015.

Kovacs (Arkansas)

Submitted a paper that evaluates the discount rate producers’ use for making irrigation investments.

Nebraska (Schoengold)

(1)          W3190 members in NE and KS are close to completing a database with disaggregated soil and climate data combined with water use information and acres/crop choice (where available) in order to estimate how these factors affect water use.

(2)          W3190 members and graduate student are analyzing the impact of hydrological characteristics on a producer’s electricity contract choice using data from western Nebraska."

Schaible (Nebraksa)

Completed the online ERS Data Product summarizing the farm-structural characteristics of U.S. irrigated agriculture across four farm-size classes for all 50 States based on USDA's 2013 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey (FRIS).  Using 311 Excel spreadsheet tables, the data product evaluates irrigation characteristics by State consistent with USDA's ERS farm typology: low-sales, moderate-sales, mid-size, and large-scale irrigated farms.  Citation: Schaible, Glenn. 2017. Irrigated Agriculture in the United States. An ERS Data Product at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/irrigated-agriculture-in-the-united-states/. This data product is extensively used by federal and state agencies, ngo's, and the research community addressing irrigated agriculture and water conservation and allocation issues.           

This output generates estimates of the costs of restoring and preserving prairie pothole wetlands and the value of their duck hunting benefits.  Findings of previous research are used to quantitatively link changes in duck numbers to changes in hunting quality. We then use benefits transfer to value changes in hunting quality.  Results reveal benefit-cost ratios ranging from near-zero to over nine.  Citation:  Hansen, LeRoy and Chuck Loesch. 2017. Targeting Waterfowl Habitat Restoration in the Prairie Pothole Region: A Spatial Analysis of Marginal Benefits and Costs.  Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 72(4) 299-307 (July/August), doi: 10.2489/jswc.72.4.299  http://www.jswconline.org/content/72/4/299.abstract. 

Yoder (Washington)

Hall, S.A., J.C. Adam, M. Barik, J. Yoder, M.P. Brady, D. Haller, M.E. Barber, C.E. Kruger, G.G. Yorgey, M. Downes, C.O. Stockle, B. Aryal, T. Carlson, G. Damiano, S. Dhungel, C. Einberger, K. Hamel-Reiken, M. Liu, K. Malek, S. McClure, R. Nelson, M. O'Brien, J. Padowski, K. Rajagopalan, Z. Rakib, B. Rushi, W. Valdez. 2016. 2016 Washington State Legislative Report. Columbia River Basin Long-Term Water Supply and Demand Forecast. Publication No. 16-12-001. Washington Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA. 216 pp. Available online at: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/SummaryPages/1612001.html.              

Brady, Michael, Julie Padowski, Eric Jessup, Qingqing Yang, & Jonathan Yoder. 2016. Skagit Basin Water Mitigation Feasibility Assessment. Submitted to the Washington State Department of Ecology, December. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/instream-flows/173503-sol.html.

Objective 2

Dinar and Grismer (California)

Work on regulation of electricity subsidies for pumping groundwater using experimental economics.

The objective of study is to analyze the long-term temporal distribution of sediment and salinity in the Salinas Valley over the period 1995-2014.  The relationship between agricultural production, institutions and environmental changes are still in question with respect to this area.  Ultimately, this research is about how we account for the way that human and nonhuman nature and technologies adapt and change each other to gain insight into the key processes at the human-environment interface.         

Here, we look at the case of sedimentation and salinity in the Salinas Valley. There are non-linear processes and time lags and feedbacks for environmental change (Lambin et al., 2003).  The emergent relationship among agricultural technology adoption, social formation, and ecological change continues to be unclear. Irrigation takes place in the region primarily through groundwater withdrawal enabled by several developments such as the development of better pumps, increased diversity of crops produced, expansion of market for region's crops. Groundwater-based irrigated area rose from 80,981 acres in the 1920s when turbine pumps were introduced to 176,516 acres in 2014. The relationship between pumping technology and groundwater irrigated acreage is however not linear. For example, in 1996 983,432 ac-ft of groundwater was used for irrigation and only 480,160 ac-ft in 2014 on 173,158 acres and 175,767 acres respectively. While it is clear that groundwater irrigation led to increase in crop production, other variables especially in the last decade interact such as adoption of water conservation technology, inter-annual climate variability, changes in irrigation water quality, seawater intrusion, energy costs and management institutions in the extent of groundwater use.           

We ask the questions: 1) What is the emergent relationship among the production technologies “ irrigation, water conservation, recycled water “ and groundwater use, the climate, agricultural economy, management institutions and environmental changes? 2) To what effect for water and soil quality or rather do technologies gage the state of agricultural water quality management?  We examine these questions using a production analysis in the Salinas Valley between 1995 and 2014.  This period embodies three periods involving key shifts in water management in the region; specifically from 1995-1998; 1999-2009 and 2010-2014.  In 1998 the Monterey County Recycling project came online and deliveries to the Castroville area started. In 2010 the Salinas River diversion facility was completed and deliveries of treated (filtered & chlorinated) water for irrigation began. As groundwater well ordinances were passed by the MCWRA regulating groundwater extraction, requiring groundwater extraction reports and water conservation reports that affect production in the area.

We employ the materialist and Actor-Network approaches. Materialist assert that a mode of production is a combination of key social and material elements which include “ labor, technology and capital “ these elements are constant but their interrelationships, combination, and recombination are in constant flux, leading to differing ways of making a living from nature and changing organization of society across history and over space  (Robbins, 2012).  Latour (2005) suggest that the key to explaining the world, where objects are socialized and society is constituted by objects, is to employ symmetry. Symmetrical explanations allow people and institutions critical roles in determining outcomes, but also allow non-people to have efficacy and a crucial role in making the world. For labor, there is a tangled material assemblages of human and non-humans that make up the world.

Guilfoos (Rhode Island)

I have started work on evaluating groundwater markets which incorporate spatial and temporal externalities.

Huffaker (Florida)

Analysis of Hydrologic Data:  Work completed on “Nonlinear Time Series Analysis with R” (Oxford University Press), which presents how time series data can be used to reconstruct dynamics of real-world hydroclimatic, environmental and economic systems, and supplies R code to run required methods.

Data Analysis in Irrigation:  This project develops an automated procedure for estimating soil water characteristics from time series data collected with soil moisture sensors (SMS).  Machine learning techniques (Density Histograms and Symbolic Aggregate Approximation-Vector Space Models) identify and characterize repeating root-water-soil-content (RSWC) sequences in the SMS data.  RSWC characteristics are used to link field capacity (a key management variable) to initial (pre-irrigation) and peak (post-irrigation) soil moisture volumes measured with SMS.  

Data Analysis in Water Treatment Wetlands:  This project uses management data collected by the Southwest Florida Water Management District to assess how well water treatment wetlands remove phosphorus from water used in sugar cane production before it flows into the Everglades national park.  The data are used to reconstruct wetland dynamics, which are used to test for key drivers of wetland performance that can be manipulated by managers to better comply with water quality standards.       

Gitau (Indiana)

Non-parametric evaluations of seasonal and regional monotonic trends conducted for long-term and short-term precipitation, stream flow, and water quality showed linkages among precipitation patterns, historical management, and water quality in the Western Lake Erie Basin. Methodologies and approaches are applicable in other areas for detecting patterns and linkages in hydrologic data.                                          

Paudel (Louisiana)

A groundwater economic model was developed which indicated that continous extraction of water would increase cone of depression areas.  It is possible to reduce these areas by using a surface groundwater conjunctive model.                                               

Peck (USDA ARS)

Peck (USDA) served as an Associate Editor for Water Resources Research; guiding the review process for manuscripts authored and/or reviewed by fellow W3190 members. 

Peck (USDA) was invited by a colleague in SD to co-present with colleagues from IA about "USDA Climate Hubs: regional partners in drought outreach" to 46 attendees at the U.S. Drought Monitor Forum, Keystone, SD, April 4, 2017.    

Peck (USDA) worked with colleagues in WY, CO, NE, TX to refine and solicit feedback about a new weather-related Grassland Productivity Forecast ("GrassCast").   

Colby (Arizona)

Economic framework developed for analyzing value of advanced remote sensing data to measure and monitor water "savings" in irrigation forbearance agreements.                                

Hendricks (Kansas)

Hendricks served as major professor for dissertation completed by PhD student Nicolas Quintana Ashwell entitled “Essays on optimal extraction of groundwater in western Kansas.”               

Hansen (Wyoming)

Hansen and Edwards are co-PIs on a USDA-NIFA proposal to examine opportunities for improved management of water resources in the Upper Colorado River Basin.                                         

Kovacs (Arkansas)

Develop a model to evaluate the ecosystem service impacts of groundwater depletion.   Use a model to examine how much lateral flows of groundwater affect the optimal management of the resource.        

Jon Bartholic, Pouyan Nejadhashemi, Ehsan Ghane, Amor Ines, Cloe Garnache (Michigan)

MSU-Amor grad student created a script to automate preprocessing of remotely sensed data using MODIS Reprojection Tool (MRT) package and preparing it for the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) program.               

MSU-Amor grad student and Miller and Kelly installed sensors and collected soil moisture data along with MODIS satellite data to use in predicting evapotranspiration.     

MSU-Ehsan student worked on determining hydraulic property of agriculture drain pipes from different manufactures in Midewest. Used to optimize price and performance. 

MSU-Pouyan grad student developing a fully integrated crop model within an optimization platform to be used for any major crop and location world wide. System also considers climate variability and extreme events.

Torell (Texas)

Work has been done on electricity power plant cooling to determine the effect of drought on plant price and quantity bids. Initial results from Texas show that drought causes power plant price bids to rise and quantity bids to fall.   Work on hydrofracturing performed in drought is underway to determine the effect that drought has on types of wells drilled, and the effect on well production over the life of the well. Initial results show that wells drilled during drought have lower production and and shallower wells than those drilled outside of drought periods.     

Willingness to pay estimates are being produced for water softness. If water softening is performed at centralized desalination plants, water water is easier to manage than diffuse homeowners using ion-exchange technologies. Initial results show a willingness to pay of $2-$3 per month for a 100 unit reduction in TDS.

Objective 3

McCann (Missouri)

Published proceedings: Fan, Yubing and Laura McCann.  Comparison and evolution of water institutions in the U.S. Midwest.  XVI World Water Congress, Cancun, Mexico May 29-June 3, 2017                                       

Suter (Colorado)

Submitted grant application to USDA with W-3190 members Todd Guilfoos and Cloe Garnache to study dynamic groundwater markets with experimental economics.                                      

Dinar (California)

Understanding the policy and institutions that enhance reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation in a regional context.                                              

Hearne (North Dakota)

Estimating value of Missouri River water in transportation.           Estimating the efficiencly of water use in the Missouri River basin.                        

Garth Taylor (Idaho)                                      

Idaho research focused on parts of all three objectives. The suite of research questions and methods examines the feasibility and economic efficiency of innovative water management practices, policies, and institutions:                  Research irrigation and non-market demand for water, with a goal of providing timely, accurate, and inexpensive estimates of water demand.               Research spatial partial equilibrium hydro-economic models that integrated hydrology and economics on a watershed or basin scale, with a goal to conduct  benefit/cost analysis on issues as drought (climate change) remediation, aquifer recharge, endangered species habitat restoration, water conservation, and new storage or conveyance.  Research other emerging water management topics with the goal of providing innovative water management practices, and policies for critical water topics."                                               

Peck (USDA ARS)

Peck (USDA) moderated, and Hansen (WY) co-organized, the selected session "Groundwater Management in a Changing Environment" at 2017 UCOWR/NIWR Annual Conference, Fort Collins, CO, Jun 13-15, 2017, at which Schoengold (NE) and a graduate student of Hendricks (KS) and Peterson (MN) presented.                                             

Colby (Arizona)

Model and empirically estimate costs and benefits associated with fallowing land to provide water for urban and environmental needs.   Develop innovative water trading mechanisms for the southwestern U.S.               Evaluate federal and state  pilot water leasing programs to accomplish specific public objectives.

Mullen (Georgia)

When exploring environmental policy options, sometimes neither the current state of the environmental good being analyzed nor the effectiveness of the proposed policy is known with certainty. This is the case with privately-owned, residential, onsite wastewater treatment systems (septic systems) – there is ample evidence that they can contribute to water quality impairment, but their contribution is generally stochastic in nature and the efficacy of technological solutions is uncertain. Furthermore, the benefits of ameliorating water quality impairments are public in nature. Septic system owners are legally responsible for maintaining their systems, but requiring them to upgrade otherwise properly functioning tanks is outside the scope of water quality regulations. An incentive structure is necessary to induce private homeowners to invest in septic upgrades that deliver both private benefits in addition to the positive externality for the wider public and environment. The question for policy makers is how these private incentives should be financed, and whether public support can be garnered. Results of a choice experiment in Gwinnett County, Georgia, accounting for both sources of uncertainty “ the current state of water quality and the efficacy of the intervention “ in the design of water quality policy were generated. We find baseline water quality conditions and policy efficacy significantly affect public support for a policy transferring public funds to private homeowners, in terms of both sentiment and willingness to pay. The manner in which costs are shared across stakeholders also affects the selection of a policy option, but not willingness to pay for it.                              

Hendricks (Kansas)

Collaborate with Shoengold and Brozovic (members of W3190) on a project, "The Effects of Institutions and Hydrological Conditions on Optimal Management of a Shared Aquifer: A Case Study of the High Plains."                                  

Hansen (Wyoming)

Hansen and stakeholder colleagues established an environmental market platform (Wyoming Conservation Exchange) to trade sage-grouse habitat and water quality credits.   Hansen and Schoengold are guest co-editors for special issue of Water (2017 Vol. 9 Issue 3; ISSN 2073-4441). “Water Management Strategies for Addressing Long-Term Drought and Climate Uncertainty.” Special issue based on October 2015 Salt Lake City conference cosponsored by W3190, WERA 1020, and Western States Water Council. Hansen and Peck (Director, USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub) organized a special session at Universities Council on Water Resources 2017 Annual Meeting. “Groundwater Management in a Changing Environment.” Fort Collins, CO (prospective, June 2017).  

Jon Bartholic, Pouyan Nejadhashemi, Ehsan Ghane, Amor Ines, Cloe Garnache (Michigan)                             

MSU-Bartholic PhD student Jermalowicz studied Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to investigate what community capitals (assets) lead to better capacity and outcomes in terms of improved management of lake resources through implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). MSU-Bartholic graduate student Petit study sought to better understand the reasons for farmers to a) join the Farmers Advisory Committee (FAC) and b) what factors contribute to their continual participation.

MSU-Bartholic graduate student Nunn enrolled producers in a voluntary tile drain monitoring study to look at nutrients leaving the tile drains.                 MSU-Garnache In collaboration with other W3190 project members (Todd Guilfoos (URI) and Jordan Suter (CSU)), Cloe Garnache has analyzed the efficiency of dynamic groundwater markets.

Schoengold (Nebraska)

W3190 members evaluated the impact of groundwater allocation policies on field-level groundwater extraction in southwest Nebraska.                                    

Schaible (ERS)

Completed an ERS website page, providing:  a) an overview of key statistics about U.S. irrigated agriculture; b) a discussion of definitional differences between key irrigation concepts, such as withdrawal, applied and consumptive water-use estimates; c) how important irrigation is to U.S. agriculture; d) where U.S. crop irrigation occurs; e) what it produces; f) trends in irrigation water use; g) challenges facing agriculture under a future changing water environment; h) the status of onfarm irrigation efficiency in the U.S. and opportunities for continued improvement; and i) private and public investment in irrigation.  Citation: Schaible, G. and M. Aillery.  2017.  Irrigation and Water Use.  An ERS website page on U.S. irrigated agriculture at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use/, (April).        

Completed an ERS Amber Waves data feature which presents key statistics on: a) the status of U.S. irrigated agriculture, b) distributional differences across numbers of irrigated farms, irrigated acres, and water use between low-sales, medium, and large-scale irrigated farms; c) how use of irrigation systems have changed over time and trends in improved onfarm irrigation efficiency; and d) how irrigation efficiency varies by region.  Citation:  Schaible, Glenn D.  2017.  Understanding Irrigated Agriculture.  Data Feature, Amber Waves, Economic Research Service, USDA (June), at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/.                      

Yoder (Washington)

Yoder, Jonathan, Jennifer Adam, Michael Brady, Joseph Cook, Stephen Katz, Shane Johnston, Keyvan Malek, John McMillan, and Qingqing Yang. 2017. Benefit-Cost Analysis of Integrated Water Resource Management: Accounting for interdependence in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.  Journal of the American Water Resources Association 1-22. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12507.               Yoder, Jonathan, Michael Brady, & Joseph Cook. 2016. Water markets and storage: Substitutes or complements for drought risk mitigation?} \textit{Water Economics and Policy} 2(2):21 pp.                Yoder, Jonathan. 2017. State of Washington Water Research Center Contributes to the debates over the Yakima Basin IWRM plan.  National Institutes for Water Resources Meetings.  Washington D.C., February.             

Torell (Texas)

Work is being performed with University of Idaho to determine the public's understanding of the term '100-year flood', and whether misunderstandings of the term cause individuals to take on higher levels of risk than they would otherwise in other contexts. The work will begin with surveys to undergraduate students in Texas and Idaho, and the second phase of the project will involve classroom experiments.                Hydro-economic modeling of the Rio Grande River is moving forward with two USDA-NIFA funded grant projects. The first looks at water sharing under climate change and urban growth scenarios, and the second looks at sources of future water and their management, including brackish and saline water supplies. The work is being performed jointly between researchers in the W3190 group from Texas and New Mexico, along with other non-members.                               

Fan, Yubing and Laura McCann.  "Comparison and evolution of water institutions in the U.S. Midwest."  XVI World Water Congress, Cancun, Mexico May 29-June 3, 2017

Fan, Yubing, Laura McCann and Hua Qin. "Households' Adoption of Drought Tolerant Plants: An Adaptation to Climate Change?" Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics May 2017, 42 (2):236-254.

Monger, R., J. Suter, D. Manning, J. Schneekloth, Forthcoming, "Retiring Land to Save Water: Participation in Colorado's Republican River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program", Land Economics

Ashraf, A., A. Dinar, E. Monteiro, and T. Gaston, Adaptation in California Agriculture: What Have We Been Assessing for Two and a Half Decades? Climate Change Economics, 7(2), 2016, 1650001, DOI: 10.1142/S2010007816500019 (19 pp.). 

Tellez-Foster E., A. Rapoport, and A. Dinar, Groundwater and Electricity Consumption under Alternative Subsidies: Evidence from Laboratory Experiments, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 68:41-52, 2017.

Ayres, A.B., Edwards, E.C. and Libecap, G.D. Do Transaction Costs Obstruct Collective Action to Limit Common-pool Losses? Evidence from California's Groundwater. NBER Working Paper No. 23382.;

Edwards, E.C., Bosworth, R.C., Adams, P., Baji, V., Burrows, A., Gerdes, C., Jones, M. 2017. Economic Insight from Utah's Water Efficiency Supply Curve. Water, 9, 214.

Elbakidze, L.  Brett Schiller, and R. Garth Taylor. 2017. Estimation of Short and Long Run Derived Irrigation Water Demands and Elasticities. Water Economics and Policy 03(01) p175.   

Elbakidze, Levan, Fa'anunu, Benjamin, Mamula, Aaron, Taylor, R. Garth, 2017. Evaluating Economic Efficiency of a Water Buyback Program: The Klamath Irrigation Project. Journal of Energy and Resource Economics Vol. 48(2), p68-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2017.02.001  Bryce A. Contor and R. Garth Taylor. 2016. A Framework for Assessing the Effect of Irrigation Improvements: Economic Rivalry, Irrigation Abstraction, and Partition to Fates. Water Economics and Policy. Vol. 2(2) p165. 

Schmidt, R. D. and R. Garth Taylor. 2016. Evaluating a Water Conservation Response to Climate Change in the Lower Boise River Basin. Water Economics and Policy DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X16500120. 2016.  Hines, Steve, Joel Packham, Carmen Wilmore, and Garth Taylor. 2016. Contribution of Agribusiness to the Magic Valley Economy, 2013. University of Idaho Extension CIS.

"Optimal Groundwater Extraction Under Uncertainty and a Spatial Stock Externality" (Merrill N., Guilfoos T.)- (Forthcoming AJAE)

Guilfoos, T., & Kurtz, K. J. (2017). Evaluating the role of personality trait information in social dilemmas. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 68, 119-129."

Rosa, L., K.F. Davis, M.C. Rulli, and P. D'Odorico, Can the extraction of shale oil and gas threaten water and food security?, in rev.;             

Rosa L., M.C. Rulli, and P. D'Odorico, "Water-stranded assets in the food and energy sectors", in rev.;

Rosa, L., K.F. Davis, M.C. Rulli, and P. D'Odorico, Environmental consequences of oil production from oil sands, Earth's Future, 5, doi:10.1002/2016EF000484, 2017; Davis, K.F., A. Seveso, M.C. Rulli, and P. D'Odorico, "Water savings of crop redistribution in the United States", Water, 9, 83; doi:10.3390/w9020083, 2017; "

Huffaker, R., Bittellii, M., Rosa, R. (2017) Nonlinear Time Series Analysis with R. Oxford University Press. Huffaker, R., Canavari, M., Munoz-Carpena, R. (in press) Distinguishing between endogenous and exogenous price volatility in food security assessment: An empirical nonlinear dynamics approach.  Agricultural Systems doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2016.09.019.

Sekaluvu, L., L. Zhang, and M.W. Gitau. 2017. Evaluation of constraints to water quality improvements in response to conservation measures in the Western Lake Erie Basin. Journal of Environmental Management. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.09.063

Ramesh Ghimire, Gary T. Green, Krishna P. Paudel, Neelam C. Poudyal, and H. Ken Cordell. 2017. Visitor's Preferences for Freshwater Amenity Characteristics: Implications from the U.S. Household Survey. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 42(1):90-113. 

Krishna P. Paudel, Nirmala Devkota and Ying Tan. 2016. Best management practices adoption to mitigate nonpoint source pollution: a conditional frailty model. China Agricultural Economics Review 8 (4): 534-552.  

Mahesh Pandit and Krishna Paudel. 2016. Water pollution and income relationships: a seemingly unrelated partially linear analysis. Water Resources Research 52(10): 7668-7689. "

Derner, J., D. Briske, M. Reeves, T. Brown-Brandl, M. Meehan, D. Blumenthal, W. Travis, D. Augustine, H. Wilmer, D. Scasta, J. Hendrickson, J. Volesky, L. Edwards, D. Peck. 2017. Vulnerability of grazing and confined livestock in the Northern Great Plains to projected mid and late-21st century climate. Climatic Change doi 10.1007/s10584-017-2029-6. http://rdcu.be/uryL.

Bonnie Colby, Water Linkages beyond the Farm Gate: Implications for Agriculture, Federal Reserve Bank Economic Review, November, 2016. https://www.kansascityfed.org/~/media/files/publicat/econrev/econrevarchive/2016/si16colby.pdf 

Bonnie Colby, "Water Trading Innovations: Reducing Agricultural Consumptive Use to Improve Adaptation to Scarcity," chapter in Competition for Water Resources: Experiences and Management Approaches in the US and Europe, edited by Jadwiga Ziolkowska and Jeffrey Peterson, Elsevier Publishing, August, 2016.  https://www.elsevier.com/books/competition-for-water-resources/ziolkowska/978-0-12-803237-4 

Ashley Kerna, Bonnie Colby, and Francisco Zamora, Valuing Environmental Flows in Mexico's Colorado River Delta, Water Economics and Policy, December, 2016.  http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2382624X16500351

Mount, J., Hanak, E., Colby, B., et al, "Improving the Federal Response to Western Drought", Public Policy Institute of California, 2016. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_216JMR.pdf

California's Water: The Colorado River, Public Policy Institute of California Policy Briefing  Paper, Ellen Hanak, Brian Gray, Jeffrey Mount, Kurt Schwabe, Timothy Bradley, Bonnie Colby, Douglas Kenney, Jose Medellin-Azuara, and Jean-Daniel Saphores, October 2016   

Dari Duval and Bonnie Colby, "Colorado River Flows and the Fisheries Economy of the Upper Gulf of California", Ecological Engineering, 2016  

Andrew Clarke, Bonnie Colby and Gary Thompson, Seasonal Elasticities of Household Water Demand: Application of the Stone-Geary Model Under an Increasing Block Rate Structure, Land Economics, 2017. 

Bonnie Colby, Water Linkages beyond the Farm Gate: Implications for Agriculture, Federal Reserve Bank Economic Review, November, 2016.

Mullen, J.D., K. Calhoun, and G. Colson (2017). "Preferences for Policy Attributes and Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvements Under Uncertainty," Water Resources Research, in press. 

Atreya, A., W. Kriesel, and J.D. Mullen (2016). "Valuing Open Space in a Marshland Environment: Development Alternatives for Coastal Georgia."  Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 48 (4): 383-402. 2016.

Tack, J., A. Barkley, and N.P. Hendricks. 2017. "Irrigation Offsets Wheat Yield Reductions from Warming Temperatures." Environmental Research Letters, in press. Available at: http://iopscience.iop.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa8d27

Hansen, K., E. Duke, C. Bond, M. Purcell and G. Paige. 2017. "Landowner Preferences for a Payment-for-Ecosystem Services Program in Southwestern Wyoming." Ecological Economics (forthcoming).

Hansen, K. 2016. Book Review of Golden Rules: The Origins of California Water Law in the Gold Rush. Water Economics and Policy 2(3): 1-4. 

Carter, C., K. Hansen, W. Kelley and L. Pauley. 2017. "Irrigation Handbook for Small-Acreage Landowners in Wyoming." University of Wyoming Extension. Ed: J. Thompson.

Huang, Q., Y. Xu, K. Kovacs, G. West. 2017. "Analysis of factors that influence the use of irrigation technologies and water management practices in Arkansas." Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. 

Kovacs, K., A. Morad-Durat. 2017. "The influence of on- and off-farm surface water investment on groundwater extraction from an agricultural landscape." Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 1-24. 

488. Kovacs, G. West, Y. Xu. "The use of efficiency frontiers to evaluate the optimal land cover and irrigation practices for economic returns and ecosystem services." Journal of Hydrology, 547: 474-488.

Kovacs, K., M. Mancini. 2017. "Conjunctive water management to sustain agricultural economic returns and a shallow aquifer at the landscape level."  Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 72 (2): 158-167. 

West, G., K. Kovacs. 2017. "Addressing groundwater declines with precision agriculture: An economic comparison of monitoring methods for variable-rate irrigation." Water 9 (1): 28. 

Kovacs, K., G. West. 2016. "The influence of groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture on the tradeoffs between ecosystem services and economic returns" PLoS One, 11(12), e0168681.  

Garnache, C., Merrel, P.R., Howitt, R.E., and Lee, J. (2017) "Calibration of Shadow Values in Constrained Optimization Models of Agricultural Supply." European Review of Agricultural Economics, 44(3): 363--397. (Lead article)   

Garnache, C., Merel, P.R., Lee, J., and Six, J. (2017) "The Social Costs of Second-Best Policies: Evidence from Agricultural GHG Mitigation." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 82:39-73.

Schaible, Glenn. 2017. Irrigated Agriculture in the United States. An ERS Data Product at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/irrigated-agriculture-in-the-united-states/.    

Schaible, G. and M. Aillery.  2017.  Irrigation and Water Use.  An ERS website page on U.S. irrigated agriculture at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use/, (April).    

Schaible, Glenn D.  2017.  Understanding Irrigated Agriculture.  Data Feature, Amber Waves, Economic Research Service, USDA (June), at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/.    

Hansen, LeRoy and Chuck Loesch. 2017. Targeting Waterfowl Habitat Restoration in the Prairie Pothole Region: A Spatial Analysis of Marginal Benefits and Costs.  Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 72(4) 299-307 (July/August), doi: 10.2489/jswc.72.4.299  http://www.jswconline.org/content/72/4/299.abstract. 

Yoder, Jonathan, Jennifer Adam, Michael Brady, Joseph Cook, Stephen Katz, Shane Johnston, Keyvan Malek, John McMillan, and Qingqing Yang. 2017. Benefit-Cost Analysis of Integrated Water Resource Management: Accounting for interdependence in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.  Journal of the American Water Resources Association 1-22. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12507.                              

Yoder, Jonathan, Michael Brady, & Joseph Cook. 2016.   Water markets and storage: Substitutes or complements for drought risk mitigation? Water Economics and Policy 2(2):21