Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Objective 1: Characterize water resource and human system response to climatic and anthropogenic perturbations.

California (Dinar, D’Odorico)

Used available data from Riverside county over the past 20 years to explain farm parcel sales and values as affected by extreme droughts.

Colorado (Eisworth, Goemans, Suter)

Completed a manuscript that uses hedonic method to evaluate the internalization of flood risk prior to and after a major flooding event in Boulder County, CO

Designed laboratory economics experiments with colleagues at the University of Delaware that evaluate behavioral responses to risk and uncertainty associated with use of a common pool groundwater resource.

Initiated collaborative work (with federal agencies) to assess the impacts of invasive weed species on the quality and human uses of the Western U.S. sagebrush biome, with linkages to wildfire, drought, and climate change.

Kansas (Hendricks, Sampson)

Advised a graduate student who finished a dissertation estimating how climate change is projected to impact water use and aquifer saturated thickness in Kansas. The results were presented as a poster at an academic conference.

Advised a graduate student writing a dissertation chapter on the effects of Renewable Fuels Standards on crop patterns and groundwater depletion in Kansas. The dissertation chapter has been submitted for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association meeting.

North Carolina (Edwards, Fell)

Researchers at North Carolina State University secured grant funding from NOAA COCA/SARP: “Wastewater Infrastructure Tipping Points: Prioritizing Implementation of Climate Adaptation Plans in Decentralized Systems,” and engaged in outreach with farm managers and landowners to convey academic findings in the area of water and climate change.

Oklahoma (Mirchi)

Collected data for developing a distributed hydrologic model of HUC8 watershed that contains Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) in the Middle Section of the Rio Grande River. Furthermore, projected surface water availability conditions generated by collaborators on USDA NIIFA funded project led by the University of Texas at El Paso were obtained for climate impact assessments.  

Developed, calibrated, and validated a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model of EBID.

Assessed potential impacts of drier futures on different components of the main components of the water budget (i.e., streamflow, ET, and groundwater recharge).

Preliminary results indicate that Elephant Butte will likely become a much less reliable surface water source in the future, which has important implications for the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Middle Rio Grande region. Increased variability and overall decline of surface water availability underscores the importance of groundwater management in the Mesilla Basin as a key element of water sustainability in the conjunctively managed system. The focus on the characterization of drier future was in response to stakeholder requests who were interested in learning about likely water sustainability challenges under plausible scenarios of declining surface water availability, which is overall consistent with observational streamflow records (e.g., San Marcial gaging station upstream of the Elephant Butte Reservoir in the Middle Rio Grande Region). 

Indiana (Gitau)

Researchers in Indiana have developed a reliable climate database for the entire Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) for use in hydrologic, water resources, and other applications in the basin (Mehan et al., 2019a). The resulting climate database is published as open access and accessible through the Purdue University Research Repository.

A study using a suite of nine GCMs rather than ensemble data, so as to capture a band of influence of watershed responses with evaluations conducted across different timelines, provided insights into management practice suitability in relation to anticipated future climate.  Results showed that more nutrient losses could be expected due to extreme precipitation events with overland flow being a major transport pathway.

Idaho (Maas, Taylor)

Served as a researcher for Idaho’s Climate-Economy Impacts Assessment, designed to help Idahoans better understand the economic risks and opportunities linked to Idaho’s changing climate.

US Forest Service (Warziniack)

Scientists at the US Forest Service, in collaboration with Colorado State University have used the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model to estimate water yield across the coterminous US for 10 climate futures at the 4km x 4km scale and daily time step. The data will soon be archived and available for public download. Results are used to project impacts to water storage and likelihood of shortage in watersheds throughout the US.

Scientists at the US Forest Service are working to update the Watershed Condition Classification Framework, specifically looking at the possibility of using newer forms of data (e.g., remote sensing) and whether or not national data can be combined with local knowledge for multi-scale assessments of watershed health throughout the country. Results will be used to study the impact of anthropogenic stressors on watershed health and aquatic biodiversity.

Objective 2: Quantify water demand and value of water in competing and complementary water uses.

Arkansas (Kovacs)

Examine the heterogeneity in time preferences of agricultural producers for an investment on-farm surface irrigation.

Use a choice experiment to determine the value of groundwater services to the Arkansas public.  Jointly estimate the time preferences of the Arkansas public for those services.

Use a dynamic programming model to estimate the total value of a groundwater stock and the responsiveness of that value to the groundwater levels for alternative degrees of lateral flows.

California (Dinar, D’Odorico)

Estimated the effect of future climate change on cost of wastewater treatment and the social cost of not taking future climate change effects into consideration.

Colorado (Suter, Goemans, Eisworth)

Collaboration with researchers at Nebraska (Mieno), CSU (Suter, Rouhi Rad), and ERS (Hrozenzic) evaluates the importance of including well yield in the estimation of the price elasticity of demand for groundwater.

Estimated industrial water demands, including responsiveness to price and weather.

Completed manuscript that uses data from a stated preference survey to evaluate economic values related to groundwater conservation in the Ogallala region.

Completed analysis of complementarities between residential water and electricity use.

Implemented field experiment with colleagues at ERS, University of Delaware, Johns Hopkins, and Albany State University related to monthly groundwater reporting in Colorado and Georgia that varied the incentives paid for participation in the program

Estimated impacts of recent droughts on the western United States.

Implemented field experiment with colleagues from ERS and Johns Hopkins that provided groundwater users in Colorado with social comparisons of annual groundwater use

Idaho (Maas, Taylor)

Worked with the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee to elicit residents’ preferences for new water sources.

Worked with the Urban Water Innovation Network, a consortium of multiple academic institutions and key water industry partners with activities currently in six regions across the U.S. designed to address water challenges in a variety of contexts from coastal communities to high plain desserts.

My research addresses a variety of water management issues, with an overarching goal of increasing society’s net benefit from limited water resources. For example, development and refinement of quantitative models and policy analyses will improve researchers and stakeholders’ ability to evaluate field, farm, and watershed-level impacts of alternative surface and ground-water policies. My co-authors and I have changed the vocabulary of water benefit-cost analysis to include hydro-externalities. Policy makers have gained understanding of the impact of climate change on surface water irrigation resources. Water planners have an accessible tool to calculate irrigation demand. Policy makers have gained insights and policy analyses tools of water prices, allocation and hydrologic externalities. Given policy makers in the Northwest a greater understanding of the non-market value and impacts of water related recreation and uses. Water planners have the tools to conduct correct cost/benefit analysis of water projects that includes conjunctive use externalities.

The strong record of outreach and collaboration with local extension will be continued: 1. Consultations and testimony to the Governor’s Office and Idaho Legislature. 2. Presentations to the Mid-Snake River Commission 3. Presentations to Idaho Department of Water Resources and Idaho Water Board. 4. Planning meetings and workshops with the Bureau of Reclamation. 5. Meetings and presentations to Idaho’s water user groups, Farm Bureau, farmers, Idaho Water Users Association and irrigation districts. 6. Presentations to county and municipal officials such as county commissioners and Planning and Zoning Boards.

Kansas (Hendricks, Sampson)

Published paper titled, “Land Market Valuation of Groundwater Availability.” This paper uses parcel-level land sales in Kansas to estimate how the availability of irrigation increases the market value of land and how the market valuation depends on the saturated thickness of the aquifer. A key contribution is that we estimate the marginal value of groundwater in storage and not just the average value.

Paper accepted for publication titled, “Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Water Saving Agricultural Technologies.” This paper uses field-level irrigation technology data in Kansas to estimate the influence of peer growers on decisions to use dropped-nozzle irrigation systems. Estimates from this project indicate that adoption of dropped-nozzle irrigation technology would have been about 10% lower between 2001 and 2014 in the absence of any peer grower influence. Additionally, it is shown that growers adopt dropped-nozzle technologies in response to higher energy prices.

Michigan (Asher)

Compare effectiveness of vegetation in a two-stage wetland treatment system to reduce and treat nonpoint source pollution in agricultural tile drains.

Jeremiah Asher and Glenn O’Neil conducted research on improving fish habitat through ground water recharge in the Maple River Watershed. The SWAT model was used to quantify impacts of landcover changes and groundwater recharge.

Minnesota (Lucia Levers, Jeff Peterson)

Designed and administered a non-market valuation survey for aquatic invasive species management using water quality indicators for a MAISRC grant.

Analyzing survey data (choice experiment) to estimate growers’ willingness to accept subsidy payments to grow cover and perennial crops for a Minnesota BWSR grant.

Designing a farmer survey for conservation practice analysis for an NSF INFEWS grant.

North Carolina (Edwards, Fell)

Researchers at North Carolina State University disseminated findings on the cost of increasing water inflows and providing ecosystem services to the Great Salt Lake in Utah to state representatives and environmental nonprofits.

North Dakota (Hearne)

Assessed Missouri River navigation and found no impact of water levels on barge traffic.  Observations of Missouri River barge movements were so low as to make conclusions insignificant. 

Rhode Island (Guilfoos)

We developed a survey in Guatemala to investigate how water quality and perceptions impact demand for water quality interventions.

Wyoming (Hansen)

Under the direction of W3190 members Hansen (WY) and Peck (USDA-ARS), a graduate student is analyzing the economic, hydrologic, and policy conditions under which adoption of water use efficiency technologies could improve farm net revenues in southeastern Wyoming (Ogallala Aquifer).

US Forest Service (Warziniack)

Scientists at the US Forest Service have developed a model for water demand for the coterminous US at the county spatial scale. The model is used to estimate water demand projections out to 2100 for several climate scenarios, including 5 GCMs, 2 RCPs, and 5 SSPs.

Scientists at the US Forest Service have created the Denver Urban Field Station, a collaborative research effort among federal, state, and local agencies, universities, and NGOs. One of the primary areas of research is the connection between water users in semi-arid urban areas in the American West with the forests from where their drinking water originates.

Objective 3: Evaluate and compare coordinated/integrated management of water sources and land use practices.

Arkansas (Kovacs)

Build hydro-economic model in collaboration with the USGS and UC Davis to evaluate the economic feasibility of managed aquifer recharge in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Co-hosted workshop in Washington D.C. on the economics of managed aquifer recharge.

Analyze how the rate of technological adoption of efficient irrigation practices influence groundwater depletion when there is a rebound effect between the irrigation practice adoption and land use.

Evaluate the amount of acreage and use of alternative irrigation practices in the Arkansas Delta.

California (Dinar, D’Odorico)

Developed a regional model for surface water/groundwater/wastewater purchase and use by avocado farmers in Escondido, California

Colorado (Suter, Goemans, Eisworth)

Worked with graduate student Di Sheng to develop hydro-economic modeling framework that allows for optimal selection of conservation on land parcels within a tile-drained sub-watershed. Compared nutrient reductions and costs to outcomes when information on the tile-drain network is ignored. Also compare optimal outcomes to outcomes under various uniform payment schemes.

Developed hydro-economic modeling framework with Goemans, Manning, Suter and Rouhi Rad at CSU and Schoengold at UNL that predicts well-level water use, profitability and groundwater levels under a range of management policies in central Kansas.

Estimated impact of crop insurance on groundwater use in the Ogallala

Indiana (Gitau)

A study on the effectiveness of Green Infrastructure (GI) on improving hydrology and water quality in an urban watershed showed that select combinations of practices would generally be more effective than individual practices implemented on their own (Chen et al., 2019). Including more would not necessarily lead to the achievement of runoff and pollutant reduction goals and applying practices to all possible areas would not necessarily provide the most cost-effective solution.

Kansas (Hendricks, Sampson)

Advised a graduate student is writing a dissertating studying how groundwater salinity impacts irrigation water use and land values. Results were presented as a poster at an academic conference.

Started project that matches groundwater salinity measurements to geospatial data on land use patterns. The objective of the project is to provide information on the extent of groundwater salinity in southwest Kansas and to empirically estimate whether planted acres of specific crops declines as salinity thresholds for those crops are exceeded. 

Minnesota (Lucia Levers, Jeff Peterson)

Analyzed scenarios to increase water quality by removing row crops from areas close to waterways and replacing them with perennial grasses and solar panels for a grant with the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Wyoming (Hansen)

Hansen is analyzing the ecological and economic trade-offs associated with programs encouraging voluntary water conservation practices on irrigated rangelands that would allow Wyoming to meet its obligations to downstream states under the Colorado River Compact. Collaborators include Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, conservation districts and ranchers in the area.

Objective 4: Evaluate and compare alternative water quantity and quality management strategies and institutions.

California (Dinar, D’Odorico)

Developed a regional model to assess the performance of GW management institutions in Managed Aquifer Recharge in Kings GW Basin in California

Colorado (Suter, Goemans, Eisworth)

Integrated a hydro-economic modeling results with WTP estimates based on stated preference survey results to estimate the economic benefits associated with a groundwater retirement program in Kansas

Estimated the impacts of groundwater retirement on the groundwater use behavior of wells that neighbor retired wells to evaluate the potential for conservation spillovers.

UNC faculty and students conducted activities aimed at enhancing the capability of a Colorado-based payments for water-based ecosystem services program to better assess program benefits.

UNC faculty and students interacted with and carried out activities in response to information needs of a collaborative, adaptive management, watershed-based program in the Platte River Basin of WY/CO/NE.

Served on Stakeholder Committee for a Colorado PWES program that acts as a watershed fund to match investors with land managers implementing practices to enhance forest and water quality.

Kansas (Hendricks, Sampson)

Worked with a graduate student to write a paper that surveys collective action efforts in Kansas. We use the insights from Elinor Ostrom to understand what factors affect support for the management plans and compare the plans to Ostrom’s design principles. Results of the research were presented as a poster at an academic conference.

Continued collaboration with Mieno and Shoengold to analyze how water restrictions impact water use of those who are just outside the policy boundary.

Minnesota (Lucia Levers, Jeff Peterson)

Published two articles using a hydro-economic model of the Salton Sea, which highlights a leasing scheme to transfer water from ag to environmental use.

Published a dynamic framework to compare innovation to regulatory strategies as policy tools for environmental protection

North Carolina (Edwards, Fell)

Researchers at North Carolina State University created a guide to municipal water conservation pricing an engaged in outreach to municipal water utilities.

North Dakota (Hearne)

Assessed the use of the bankruptcy model as a cooperative game theoretic tool for water allocation during drought periods in the Missouri River. 

Wyoming (Hansen)

With University of Wyoming Extension colleagues, Hansen is assisting the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office to assess stakeholder interest in a water demand management program, which could help Wyoming and other Upper Colorado River Basin states meet their obligations under the Colorado River Compact.