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Typically, water has been allocated by some priority criteria like water rights in each country . However, water allocation by priority might have the problem in which the area of lowest priority can suffer from water shortage all the time. So, this study has tried to develop water allocation rules by weighting factor techniques. The weighting factors are estimated by sectoral and regional factors. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is applied to estimate the sectoral factors and the regional factors can be divided by the regional-characteristic and regional-scale ends. The water allocation rules for the reservoir are developed by applying those weighting factors and the rules are applied to Andong dam reservoir which supplies the water to Busan-Si, Daegu-Si, and Goryeong-Gun, Korea in water deficit situation. As a result, all sectors and regions could share the burdens of water shortage by the water allocation using the relative weighting factors.

The biotic integrity of the Florida Everglades, a wetland of immense international importance, is threatened as a result of decades of human manipulation for drainage and development. Past management of the system only exacerbated the problems associated with nutrient enrichment and disruption of regional hydrology. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) now being implemented by Federal and State governments is an attempt to strike a balance between the needs of the environment with the complex management of water and the seemingly unbridled economic growth of southern Florida. CERP is expected to reverse negative environmental trends by “getting the water right”, but successful Everglades restoration will require both geochemical and hydrologic intervention on a massive scale. This will produce ecological trade-offs and will require new and innovative scientific measures to (1) reduce total phosphorus concentrations within the remaining marsh to 10 µg/L or lower; (2) quantify and link ecolo...

This paper examines potential barriers to water banking as a tool to manage scarce water resources in the western United States. A water dispute is described in northwestern Nevada. The paper outlines the concept of water banking to manage the dispute and discusses the results of a survey to assess local farmers' willingness to participate. Results indicate that farmers are willing to fallow cropland and lease their water rights to a water bank conditionally. These conditions include: 1) farmers maintain local design, control and operation of a water bank, 2) changes to water law to prevent water right losses, 3) enable temporary water transfers to occur as part of the hay crop rotation and 4) understand and anticipate potential negative economic impacts to agriculture suppliers and other related local industries from water banking.

The OECD has introduced a water pricing mechanism and listed eight categories gleaned from experience in OECD countries. However, in the Asian humid tropics, it is too early to apply water pricing because there is seldom a concept of water right, or practical organization of water management. In almost all irrigation projects in Japan, area charge has been applied, and collected fees have recovered entire operation and maintenance costs. Although effective volumetric charge is employed in several regions in Japan, most farmers pay area-based annual charges at several times of the year via Land Improvement Districts. In the Asian humid tropics, it is important to facilitate the establishment of sound management organizations of irrigation water before introducing a strict water pricing mechanism to levy the charge.

Market purchases of water rights for environmental purposes in the western United States have involved purchases by public agencies of at least 88 850 acre feet of water over the last five years. Annual water leasing for environmental purposes has been more active, with 1.72 million acre feet leased in the western United States. The most frequent reasons for these transactions are for wildlife (primarily waterfowl), recreation and fisheries. The average price paid for a water right is $609 per acre foot, while it is $30 per acre foot for an annual water lease. As evidenced by the ability of government agencies to purchase water in voluntary transactions, environmental uses of water are often competitive with many low-value agricultural crops in the western United States.

Poverty is a complex issue, which must be understood in a holistic manner. Low and variable income is certainly a key element, but it is far from enough to portray poverty. The various characteristics of poverty and their relative strength are determined through contextually specific circumstances, in terms of history, environmental preconditions, socio-cultural traits, etc. Much of this context is made up of local and national circumstances. The consequences of globalisation must, however, increasingly to be taken into account. At a larger scale, it is also relevant to mention that climate change will have a negative, although largely unpredictable, impact for the people in some parts of the world. For those who are already living on marginal lands or who are exposed to water problems, climate change is likely to create considerable adverse effects.

The effect of reservoir group networking and joint scheduling on the efficiency of regional water resources allocation is studied in the paper and demonstrated by case analysis of two engineering projects in the counties of Zhejiang Province. The efficiency of water resources allocation involves both engineering and economic aspects, and its improvement is the result of the interaction between institutions and technologies. The efficiency of networking and joint scheduling of reservoir groups is obvious, as proved by the physical network created by joint scheduling, the internal incentive mechanism generated by water right transactions, as well as the networking and joint scheduling of agricultural irrigation, urban water supply and ecological water use. This efficiency mainly comes from the accumulation of reservoir resources and the rational utilization of flood resources brought by networking and joint scheduling. It would be an important model for the future development of regional water resources optimization to network and jointly operate reservoir groups. In essence, the networking and joint scheduling of a reservoir group involve the optimal allocation and operation of multi-source water resources for multi-users. The scheduling diagram can be regarded as the combination of diversion and water supply dispatch of each member reservoir, forming the network structure, realizing the joint operation of regional water resources, and finally improving the efficiency of water resources allocation at different stages in different regions. The main body of the reservoir networking and joint scheduling, the government departments, carry out planned dispatching of reservoirs only with obtaining certain amount of information. It is therefore necessary to establish an incentive compatibility mechanism to overcome such defects as information lag and asymmetry, in networking and operating reservoir groups.

China has made great progress in the study of socio-economic water cycle. She has completed national water resources appraisement and medium to long-term water supply planning. She has been engaging in study on water-deficient regions in North China and Northwest China for about half a century. For solving water shortage problem in northern China, she has put forward the famous South-to-North Water Transferring Projects, which has been set as one of the four biggest national projects in the Tenth Five-Year-Plan period although there are still debates. For promoting water use efficiency, China has been reforming her water management system, including water right system and water price system. There has already been a case of water right purchase. China has also done a lot of research on the interaction between human activity, water and ecosystem. For meeting the need of sustainability and coordinating water resources development and environmental protection, the study of ecological water requirement became very hot in recent years. There are three focuses of socio-economic water cycle study now in China: water transfer projects from the south to the north, water resources management and ecological water requirement.

This 2013 Idaho National Laboratory Water Use Report and Comprehensive Well Inventory (Revision 22) provides water use information for production and potable water wells at the Idaho National Laboratory for Calendar Year 2013. It also provides detailed information for new, modified, and decommissioned wells and holes. Two new wells were drilled and completed in Calendar Year 2013. No modifications were performed on any wells. Seven wells were decommissioned in Calendar Year 2013. Detailed construction information for the new and decommissioned wells is provided. Location maps are included, provided survey information was available. This report is being submitted in accordance with the Water Rights Agreement between the State of Idaho and the United States, for the United States Department of Energy (dated 1990) and the subsequent Partial Decree for Water Right 34-10901 issued June 20, 2003.

This paper presents a MAS-based infrastructure for the specification of a negotiation framework that handles multiple negotiation protocols in a coherent and flexible way. Although it may be used to implement one single type of agreement mechanism, it has been designed in such a way that multiple mechanisms may be available at any given time, to be activated and tailored on demand (on-line) by participating agents. The framework is also generic enough so that new protocols may be easily added. This infrastructure has been successfully used in a case study to implement a simulation tool as a component of a larger framework based on an electronic market of water rights., This paper was partially funded by the Consolider AT project CSD2007-0022 INGENIO 2010 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; the MICINN projects TIN2011-27652-C03-01 and TIN2009-13839-C03-01; and the Valencian Prometeo project 2008/051.

The MODSIM river basin network flow model is extended to directly incorporate constraints on concentrations of conservative water quality constituents. The extended model MODSIMQ is linked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's QUAL2E streamflow water quality model and a model for estimating quality of irrigation return flows. An iterative procedure based on the Frank-Wolfe nonlinear programming algorithm links MODSIMQ and the water quality models to assure convergence to solutions satisfying water right priorities, while attempting to maintain minimum water quality requirements. Irrigation return flows, canal seepage, reservoir seepage, deep percolation, and river depletion due to groundwater pumping are modeled using stream depletion factors from the U.S. Geological Survey. Application of MODSIMQ to the lower Arkansas River basin in Colorado successfully models the complex legal and administrative issues under Colorado water law and the Arkansas River Compact, including the many water exchange ...

The results of a spatiotemporal investigation of water right transfer activity are presented. The data demonstrate a robust level of transfer activity over the period 1975-1995, and nearly unidirectional change in water use to higher-value uses. Whereas activity is locally focused and constrained in an upstream administrative area, it is more geographically and operationally diffuse in the administrative area containing the Albuquerque Metropolitan Area. A larger number of conservation district related transfers suggests that the forces of structural economic change are stronger there, and that it is more likely to experience third-party effects than other areas.

JOHN P. O'CONNOR [*] Most river basins have experienced development of water projects to promote flood control, recreation, and hydropower and agricultural production. Though the projects helped establish stable economies, there have been adverse impacts to the natural environment and wildlife that reside in these river basins. One of the key policy tools for habitat restoration is management of instream flows. Alternative water banking policies for restoring habitat are compared using a spatial optimization model to identify which policies work best to augment instream flows for habitat restoration. Results indicate that policy goals dictate what type of water bank is preferred. (JEL 025, 018, D61) I. INTRODUCTION During the past century, there has been substantial development of water projects on most of the major river basins in the western United States. The projects reshape basin hydrology to provide flood control, production of hydropower, navigable waterways and to augment stream flows for agricultural production during seasonal dry periods. As projects became operational, water users were granted rights to use the water under the prior appropriations doctrine, where the priority of the right was determined by when the grower initially diverted the water. Consequently, the allocation of water is conducted according to legal rather than economic principles, resulting in a large disparity between the value of water in its many existing and potential uses. Though the projects helped establish stable agricultural-based economies and provided low-cost power to encourage development, there have been adverse effects to the natural environment. Changing the timing of stream flow has resulted in impacts to water flow for fish populations, wetland and wildlife habitat, ecosystem health, and recreation. The impacts to salmon species have been especially pronounced, as the construction of water projects has both impeded fish passage and altered stream flows critical to the fishes life cycle. In Idaho's Snake River there are three salmon stocks listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. To mitigate these impacts and aid in the recovery of endangered salmon species, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, 1995) recommended the establishment of minimum stream flow targets for the Snake River. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and the Army Corps of Engineers have begun studying a variety of methods for achieving instream flow targets, including water banking. Water transfers have been proposed as a way to reduce the allocative inefficiencies of the prior appropriations doctrine (Burness and Quirk, 1979; Colby, 1990; Howe et al., 1986). Water transfers have received the most attention during drought periods to move water within agriculture (Dinar and Letey, 1991) or to urban uses (Taylor and Young, 1995; Michelsen and Young, 1993). However, recent attention has been given to transferring water for environmental uses (Fadali and Shaw, 1998; Weinberg et al., 1993). Most studies have focused on the implementation of water markets; however, water banks are more common in practice (Howitt, 1994; MacDonnell et al., 1994, 1-3). Though the distinction between these institutions is not precise, markets generally facilitate the permanent transfer of water rights and banks facilitate the temporary transfer of the right to use storage water. As long as water banking is recognized as a beneficial use of water, banks may be more attractive to many water right holders because th ey are able to maintain control over future use of the water and opportunities that may arise from having that right. This removes the all-or-nothing nature of a permanent transfer. Water banks serve as institutional intermediaries that help reduce the cost of transferring water between users. These costs fall under two categories--the cost of making water transfers and the third-party impacts associated with transfers, both of which can be substantial. …

Summary The need for more-efficient agricultural use of irrigation water arises out of the increased competition for water resources and the greater pressure on irrigation practices to be environmentally friendly. Here, we use a simple water-balance approach to model soil-water storage changes for the purpose of better estimating the irrigation requirements for a range of field crops growing in the Auckland region of New Zealand. In this humid, maritime climate irrigation requirements can very greatly in time and with crop type. Such information is needed by the local authorities, for planning purposes to determine appropriate water right allocations for local growers. The model we have developed considers the root zone to be one dimensional, comprising a uniform soil of known hydraulic properties, and having plants with roots extending vertically to a known depth. Model output consists of daily values of the soil moisture stored in the root zone. Crop water use was calculated via the Penman-Monteith mode...

Water markets are increasingly being used and promoted as an economically efficient means to transfer water rights. Knowledge of water-right price determinants and trends is important in developing markets, and in evaluating the comparative benefits and costs of water supply alternatives. Potential determinants of homogeneous water-right prices are identified, and a two-equation model based on rational expectations theory is developed. The model is tested using empirical evidence from the established market for Colorado-Big Thompson water rights. The model results support observations that returns to water in irrigation do not adequately explain the level of water-right prices. Socioeconomic and speculative factors are found to explain successfully the variations in historical prices, and appear to play a substantial role in water-right price formation. These findings have important implications in assessing the benefits of proposed water-transfer policies.

SwedPower AB, Stockholm, SwedenStandardized methods for determining instream flow needs in connection with hydropower development have still not been established in Sweden. However, claims related to conflicting uses of running waters have long engaged the Water Right Courts. Historically, the floating of timber has constituted a strong reason for regulating rivers. Later, the creation of large reservoirs and the subsequent alteration of the natural river flow have mainly been related to the generation of hydroelectricity. In recent decades, the expectations of stakeholders have also been directed at recreational fisheries and the maintenance of biodiversity. Dry channels below diversion points are no longer considered acceptable. Swedish legislation allows for a regular review and reissue of permits to regulate rivers and operate hydroelectric power plants. However, it is only possible to enforce changes which are economically reasonable. The maximum loss of electricity which must be endured by a producer without reciprocal demands of compensation amounts to 5%. Presently, fishing may be regarded as the second most important interest in terms of the use of river resources. Accumulated knowledge of fish ecology makes it possible to use models for the management of fish populations. However, decisions regarding minimum releases of water are usually still based on the natural hydrograph rather than on documented relationships between fish yield and the characteristics of the watercourse. Over the past 7 years, Vattenfall, the largest producer of hydroelectricity in Sweden, has carried out research and development to test, improve and introduce instream flow methods for the management of regulated rivers. Experiences regarding biotope adjustments as an alternative to increased releases of water are presented, and the economic and biodiversity aspects are discussed.

An investigation of barriers to a more sustainable management of the available water resources in a Zimbabwean catchment has been conducted. Currently (spring 1997), the water resources of Zimbabwe are managed according to the 1976 Water Act. Two types of barrier have been identified: those directly related to the Water Act and others related to the traditional perception of water resources in Zimbabwe. Barriers related to the Water Act include the existing water right system, a highly centralized system of decision making, and a non-participatory system. Other barriers are the price of water, lack of information (both water resources system data and socio-economic data), lack of drought planning, and little or no environmental concern.

This study tested the explanatory power of Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB), and a modified TPB model including perceived moral obligation (PMO) and perceived water right (PWR), to predict people's intentions to conserve water. The study had 244 government employees who participated. The TPB variables improved the prediction of intention to use less water, but were less successful in predicting intention to install water-efficient appliances. A significant interaction was found between attitude and subjective norm, suggesting that past studies have overlooked moderating effects in the TPB model. In addition to the TPB variables, PWR further improved the prediction of intention to install water-efficient appliances. Results also suggest that water-saving procedures should be differentiated into curtailment and efficiency procedures.

Water markets either formal or informal can be an efficient method for reallocating scarce water supplies. At the same time certain constraints can raise the transaction costs of trading water. This paper reviews the conditions necessary to establish successful water markets, identifies potential problems, and offers mitigating strategies. It also uses examples of several informal and formal water markets already in operation to illustrate these problems and the solutions to them. This article proposes that countries facing water shortages under their current water pricing systems consider water marketing as a way to reallocate water resources. Authors illustrate the importance of understanding a country's institutional framework before embarking on a comprehensive overhaul of water policies and review the conditions required for effective water markets. Recent studies of formal and informal markets highlight the gains from the efficient allocation of water as well as the constraints that raise the transaction costs of trading water. As authors point out, water markets can provide the appropriate economic incentives to improve the efficiency of water use and encourage the reallocation of water to higher-valued uses without encountering the traditional opposition of existing water users.

Two events in California’s recent history have had a profound impact in shaping present and future water resources policy: the selenium contamination at Kesterson Reservoir and the battle to save Mono Lake. The irrigation-induced selenium toxicity discovered at Kesterson changed public perception of agriculture as a benign consumer of water, eroded the political power of the agricultural lobby, and has contributed to a revision in the allocation of water between the cities, agriculture and the environment. The Mono Lake Decisions of 1983 and 1994 set an equally important precedent in affirming the State’s public trust obligation to preserve public resources and to reconsider previous water right allocations in the light of evolving knowledge and changing priorities. Both of these issues were important precursors for the current multibillion dollar State and Federal (CALFED) initiative to ‘fix’ the myriad of biologic, hydrologic and water quality problems of the San Francisco Bay estuary. In this paper, we compare the Kesterson and Mono Lake controversies and discuss the role of science and research in attempting to resolve these issues. We conclude by drawing linkages to the current CALFED initiative and suggesting implications for future water quality management in California’s lakes and reservoirs.

This article describes current schools of thought on water as a finite resource and, as such, a factor to be contended within the pursuit of sustainable development. The media, in inflating this topic, has tended to create stereotypes in the minds of the public and the leaders of opinion. These issues must be put into their proper perspective if a constructive debate is to ensue. The four main schools of thought, addressed schematically in this article, are as follows: - the neo-Malthusian school, which focuses on water as a key factor in global food security and asserts that, overall, the continued growth of man-made pressures on the hydrological cycle cannot fail to have adverse consequences for Biodiversity, - the Planning-centred approach which places the emphasis on water resources as an aspect of economic development at the state level, - the Geostrategic viewpoint, which stresses transboundary issues and the vulnerability of certain nations due to their lack of autonomy regarding water resources, - the Economy-centred theory which advocates market mechanisms as a means of regulating resource allocation. This works by conciliating the interests of the individual with those of the economic community through instruments such as fees, incentives and water right transactions.

On the basis of the pre-research of the comprehensive evaluation of basin initial water right allocation scheme, in view of the complexity and differences of the allocation scheme, taking advantages of the grey system clustering evaluation method based on the reformative triangular whitenization weight function, and the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process in historical data processing and sophisticated data integration, integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the grey evaluation method of triangle whitening function, this paper conduct grey clustering comprehensive evaluation model based on the center-point triangular whitenization weight function for evaluating basin initial water rights allocation scheme. Finally, we take comprehensive evaluation of basin initial water rights allocation scheme of Tianjin city for instance to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of this model.

In most countries the state owns the water resources and the hydraulic infrastructure, and public officials decide who gets the water, how it is to be used, and how much will be charged for it. But costly inefficiencies in the supply and use of water support a shift from government provision to a market-based approach that is more effective and less wasteful. Markets can allow rapid changes in allocation in response to changing demands for water and can stimulate investment and employment as investors are assured of access to secure supplies of water. Because of water's unique characteristics, such markets do not work everywhere; nor do they resolve all water-related issues. By designing appropriate water laws and regulations and by strengthening private and public institutions to administer them, formal water markets can effectively address rising demands for groundwater and for water found in rivers, lakes, and canals. Lessons from Chiles experience demonstrate that formal water markets can improve the economic efficiency of water use and stimulate investment.

In Colorado, like other western states, water rights and water laws direct land use anddevelopment. In 1972, the Colorado legislature passed a new law allowing for wateraugmentation plans. Plans for augmentation may be used in integrating ground and surfacewaters and in maximizing the beneficial use of all waters of the state. The plans must avoidinjury, the state engineer shall consider the depletions from an applicants use or proposed use ofwater, in quantity and in time, the amount and timing of augmentation water which would beprovided by the applicant and the existence, if any, of injury to any owner of or person entitled touse water under a vested water right. In other words, a growing community can borrow waterfor a beneficial use as long as they put it back before the person who owns the right to the waterneeds it.The Crystal Lakes Development Company developed the first water augmentation plan for parcelsless than 35 acres in the state. The 1974 plan limited water for beneficial use to in-house domesticuse with yard irrigation prohibited by restrictive covenants. The water consumed by thecommunity was calculated by the number and type of sewage systems used. The use ofevapotranspiration was limited by the decree to 72 units and those were considered 100%diversions. Soil absorption system were considered a 10% diversion of water.The Crystal Lakes Water & Sewer Association manages 1 cluster soil absorption system thatserves 25 homes on small lots and 1 large system for the lodge, restaurant and offices. Theassociation manages 300 holding tanks, 7 community vault toilets and RV dump stations. Allholding tanks are pumped by the association using their truck. The wastewater is taken to 1 of 3community soil absorption systems.

Environmental water managers (EWMs) are appearing in an increasing range of jurisdictions as a way of managing environmental water in the context of a water market. This paper demonstrates a correlation between these organisations and three legal and policy factors, which will be of interest to any jurisdictions seeking to use the EWM model in future.

Texas faced the worst single-year drought in its history in 2011, and the battle against dry conditions brought on by that record-setting drought continues in many parts of the state, especially in those areas where water supplies have simply disappeared. Although rains have provided relief to some of the state, Texans are taking steps to have water available for future needs and to fast-track water supply projects desperately needed now. This paper features case studies of Texas cities and water suppliers who are responding to existing drought conditions and who are planning for potential droughts in the future. Response measures include water conservation, drought measures (including rationing in some cases), priority water right calls to protect senior water rights, fast-tracked implementation of new water supplies, water reuse, and close monitoring of the status of raw water systems using models and decision support tools.

Water rights reform in Australia reached a milestone in 1994 with the Council of Australian Governments Water Reform Framework recognising that water property rights should be separated from land. The Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI) in 2004 progressed this reform further, separating the water right into an ongoing share of available water, an annual allocation volume and separate site specific approvals for taking and use, referred to as unbundling of water rights. The NWI envisaged unbundling water rights would assist water markets and assist flexible and efficient water resource management decisions. South Australia commenced water reforms early, with water rights separated from land in 1983. In response to the NWI, South Australia passed legislation in 2007 to unbundle water rights. These reforms were implemented for the River Murray in 2009. The expansion of unbundling into other water resources will occur as part of the statutory review of the water allocation plans, which set the rules for allocating, trading, taking and using water. Whilst the unbundling of water rights has benefited River Murray water trade and assists adaptive management, the physical differences of the various water resources suggest different approaches to unbundling may be required. This paper discusses the South Australian policy on the implementation of unbundling of water rights, which provides an adaptive approach to water rights reform.

This research assesses the effectiveness of groundwater doctrine in eastern Colorado and western Kansas within the context of 330 irrigators' preferences for perceived changes in groundwater appropriations and variances in existing rules to best achieve the public interest. A survey of irrigators in six groundwater management districts reveals that attitudes conflict with several aspects of current appropriation doctrine. There is significant support for broad-based, uniform reductions in appropriations when groundwater becomes scarce rather than the “first in time, first in right” requirement in the prior appropriation doctrine. Many irrigators believe that past water-use efficiency should be a criteria factored into appropriation reduction polices. Most oppose the “use it or lose it” concept that requires specified levels of beneficial use to protect a water right, and irrigators oppose special exemptions to permit new wells to benefit the public interest in fully appropriated areas. Importantly, if irrigators' preferences were codified in the groundwater appropriations doctrines, more groundwater could be conserved.

The effects of climate change on water resources in the United States are well-understood and likely to have profound impacts on water resources and water availability. Although the effects of climate change will be felt nationwide, their impact on Indian tribal communities may be particularly severe. Tribes’ relationship to water is not only economic, but cultural and spiritual. Water drives the economy for many tribes, supporting agriculture, energy production, fisheries, grazing, towns and communities. Water is also central to the culture of many tribes, providing habitat for the fish, wildlife, and native plant species that are important sources of food, medicines, and rituals. And water is sacred, embodying a spiritual dimension beyond its uses. Governmental responses to climate change have proceeded in two overlapping sets of strategies: the first generation of mitigation strategies and the second generation of adaptation strategies. In the context of Indian tribes and climate change, the third-generation issue is who decides what adaptation strategies should be employed. Tribal self-determination mandates that adaptation strategies for Indian country be decided by the governing tribes. Recognizing tribes as governments with the right and ability to govern means that tribes are responding to climate change “as active agents and not as victims.” Tribal adaptation to climate change to meet tribal needs, however, is more than a matter of tribal initiative and tribal institutions. Federal law must ensure that tribal adaptation is possible. To do this, to promote climate justice in Indian communities, federal law must allow Indian tribes the flexibility to design and implement adaptation strategies that meet each tribe’s needs. In the context of tribal water rights, however, too many federal Indian laws and policies are anti-adaptive. Federal approaches to tribal water rights too often stand in the way of tribes’ ability to develop adaptation strategies focused on the needs of specific reservations facing particular circumstances. This chapter identifies and discusses five barriers that federal law and policy place in the path of tribal adaptation strategies. Three of these arise primarily from a federal statute that forces most adjudication of tribal water rights into state courts. The variability of state court interpretations of federal reserved rights law, in turn, creates restrictions on the measure used to quantify tribal water rights, restrictions on the sources of water subject to tribal rights, and restrictions on the use of the tribal water right. A fourth restriction is a matter of regulatory policy: a restriction on tribes’ ability to promulgate water codes to regulate water uses. And the fifth arises both from federal law and from an approach used in negotiated water rights settlements: restrictions on tribes’ ability to engage in water marketing.

Senate Bill 3 emerged from the Texas Legislature in 2007 as an attempt to create certainty over how the state deals with allocating water to environmental flows. Senate Bill 3 created a process in the Water Code requiring regional stakeholder groups (referred to as Basin and Bay Area Stakeholder Committees or BBASCs) to develop consensus-based environmental flow standards and strategies to meet the environmental flow standards specific to the rivers and bay systems in a particular region. The concept of “environmental flows” describes the flows of water necessary to protect the ecological health of rivers and of the bays and estuaries that are the ultimate recipients of these flows. The consensus of the scientific community is that for environmental flow standards to be adequate to support a sound ecological environment in a stream system, they must include minimum subsistence flows, varying levels of base flows, high flow pulses, and overbank pulses that vary throughout the year. Environmental flow standards establish requirements that govern when a water right holder may remove water from a stream or a river (instream flow requirements), thus protecting that water for instream and bay or estuary environmental needs. The Water Code directs the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), after considering the stakeholder committees’ recommendations, to adopt environmental flow standards “adequate to support a sound ecological environment, to the maximum extent reasonable considering other public interests and other relevant factors.” This paper summarizes the environmental flow standard and strategy recommendations made by the six stakeholder committees that submitted reports to the TCEQ and compares these to the standards the TCEQ ultimately adopted. The adopted standards only apply to permits seeking a new appropriation of water or to an amendment to an existing water right that increases the amount of water authorized to be stored, taken, or diverted.

Increasing water extraction, a lack of environmental flows and escalating urban demand for water has intensified the political need to find acceptable ways of sharing available water. This paper studies the public's views towards water sharing and policy options in four locations in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) in Alberta, Canada, each experiencing differing levels of resource dependence. Two locations are in the southern region of the SSRB which is most affected by scarcity and environmental degradation due to the current level of water extraction; while the two locations in the northern region have far less exposure to these problems. Regression analysis on policy preferences for water sharing found that people who live in areas that are more urban (measured by population density and resource dependence) tend to support policies that prioritize the environment, as well as policies that vest a high level of control in government. People who live in areas that are more rural tend to support policies that protect existing water right holders. Other important influences on people's views include age, income, membership of environmental and water groups and having had a rural childhood. Other analysis suggests that the differing levels of scarcity and environmental degradation in different locations are associated with policy preferences, especially when it comes to policies aiming at reducing existing licence holders' access to water in order to secure more water for the environment.

Efficient resource use is increasingly central to the economic well being of individual regions and countries. Institutional arrangements set the ground rules for resource use. At best, institutions facilitate achievement of economic and social goals. At worst, they establish impediments to efficient resource use and significant resources must be expended by individuals to compensate for their obsolete or poor design. In general, efficient water use requires a secure and flexible system of water rights. In the first regard, the peculiar physical characteristics of water resources pose special challenges for institutional design. Water resources are prone to market failures that must be addressed by institutions in order to yield efficient allocation and use. A section of the paper is devoted to presenting institutional approaches to establishing security in water use. Proportionality, prioritized rights and licenses are discussed in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. Concerning flexibility, water allocations must change in response to changing physical and economic circumstances. In the context of drought, administrative rationing, priority and drought water options are analyzed. For demand based transfers, a full range of institutional options are considered, from a complete ban on transfers to no restriction, including market and administratively based transfers. The special issues of infrastructure, transactions costs, and secondary impacts are also discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning how the mix of institutional arrangements affects incentives guiding water use.

Water transfers to growing cities in sub-Sahara Africa, as elsewhere, seem inevitable. But absolute water entitlements in basins with variable supply may seriously affect many water users in times of water scarcity. This paper is based on research conducted in the Pangani river basin, Tanzania. Using a framework drawing from a theory of water right administration and transfer, the paper describes and analyses the appropriation of water from smallholder irrigators by cities. Here, farmers have over time created flexible allocation rules that are negotiated on a seasonal basis. More recently the basin water authority has been issuing formal water use rights that are based on average water availability. But actual flows are more often than not less than average. The issuing of state-based water use rights has been motivated on grounds of achieving economic efficiency and social equity. The emerging water conflicts between farmers and cities described in this paper have been driven by the fact that domestic use by city residents has, by law, priority over other types of use. The two cities described in this paper take the lion’s share of the available water during the low-flow season, and at times over and above the permitted amounts, creating extreme water stress among the farmers. Rural communities try to defend their prior use claims through involving local leaders, prominent politicians and district and regional commissioners. Power inequality between the different actors (city authorities, basin water office, and smallholder farmers) played a critical role in the reallocation and hence the dynamics of water conflict. The paper proposes proportional allocation, whereby permitted abstractions are reduced in proportion to the expected shortfall in river flow, as an alternative by which limited water resources can be fairly allocated. The exact amounts (quantity or duration of use) by which individual user allocations are reduced would be negotiated by the users at the river level.

This 2011 Idaho National Laboratory Water Use Report and Comprehensive Well Inventory (Revision 20) provides water use information (monthly annual average and total annual volume) for production and potable water wells at the Idaho National Laboratory for Calendar Year 2011. It also provides detailed information for new, modified, and abandoned (decommissioned) wells and holes. One new well was drilled and completed and one well was modified in Calendar Year 2011. A total of 14 wells and boreholes were reported as decommissioned. Detailed construction information for the new and modified wells is provided. Details are provided for the wells and boreholes that have been decommissioned, and if available, construction diagrams. Location maps are included, provided survey information was available. This report is being submitted in accordance with the Water Rights Agreement between the State of Idaho and the United States, for the United States Department of Energy (dated 1990) and the subsequent Partial Decree for Water Right 34-10901 issued June 20, 2003.

[1] A spatiotemporal model is developed to examine prior appropriations–based water curtailment in Idaho's Snake River Plain Aquifer. Using a 100 year horizon, prior appropriations–based curtailment supplemented with optimized water use reductions is shown to produce a spatial distribution of water use reductions that differs from that produced by regulatory curtailment based strictly on initial water right assignments. Discounted profits over 100 years of crop production are up to 7% higher when allocation is optimized. Total pumping over 100 years is 0.3%, 3%, and 40% higher under 1, 10, and 100 year prior appropriations–based regulatory curtailment, respectively.

This paper examines the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Montana v. Wyoming; it discusses the doctrine of recapture; it argues that efficiency improvements in use of water for irrigation are within the scope of the water right.

The regional development strategy of China was converted from “Coast regional priority development strategy” to “Regional balance development strategy” in 1999. Under this strategy, Northwest China was planned to be the energy production base for local development and supplying power to the Beijing economic bloc. However, the lack of the water resource obstructs the construction of the energy production base. With this background, it is expected to achieve regional development by implementation of “Reallocation of Water Right” policy with reallocation of resources, including electric power. This study reviews existing resource allocation systems, and issue the possibility of reallocation system through calculates the transferable water volume in Inner Mongolia, then analyzes the potential for regional development through the reallocation of water rights. The study also analyzes the impacts of water rights reallocation system on energy use and CO2 emission.

Voluntary water transfers through markets have been advocated by many diverse groups as a means to reallocate scarce water supplies in the semi-arid western U.S. Although transfers of water rights have occurred almost since the creation of prior appropriation laws over a century ago, functioning water markets have been very slow to develop and are few in number. The structure, composition, administration and transactions of one of the most well established water markets, shares in the Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado-Big Thompson project, are examined to better understand the institutional and transfer conditions that sustain an active water market. Results from a detailed study of C-BT project records reveal that between 1970 and 1993 there were 2,698 transactions through which over one-third of the project water changed ownership or type of use. Further analysis shows that the transactions involved many individual sellers and categories of buyers with different uses, including agricultural buyers. The transfer activity and efficiency of the C-BT market has lead some to suggest that it be used as a model for other markets. However, because this market has fewer institutional restrictions, a well developed infrastructure and unique market conditions, it will be difficult to transfer this model to other areas without accompanying modifications in water right administration and institutions.

The concept of water bank is introduced from the different perspective of international and domestic. Water bank has been demonstrated that it is a effective means of regulating water surplus and deficiency, saving water transaction costs and advancing water resources sustainable utilization as a agency of water right tenancy and water quantity both vendor & purchaser taking Chaohe river basin in Chengteh municipality Hebei province as an example and feasibility of establishing water bank system & necessity of actualizing water bank system.

This 2010 Idaho National Laboratory Water Use Report and Comprehensive Well Inventory (Revision 19) provides water use information (monthly annual average and total annual volume) for production and potable water wells at the Idaho National Laboratory for Calendar Year 2010. It also provides detailed information for new, modified, and abandoned (decommissioned) wells and holes. Five new wells were drilled and completed in the latter part of Calendar Years 2009 and 2010. Two wells were modified in Calendar Year 2010 and 66 wells and boreholes reported as abandoned (decommissioned). Detailed construction information for the new and modified wells, along with abandonment information for older wells, is provided. Location maps are provided if survey information was available. This report is being submitted in accordance with the Water Rights Agreement between the State of Idaho and the United States, for the United States Department of Energy (dated 1990) and the subsequent Partial Decree for Water Right 34-10901 issued June 20, 2003.

Sefidrud River is one of the largest rivers in Iran and its basin extends mainly into seven (7) provinces, where typical water resources conflicts exist between the lower and upper reaches as well as between existing and future water rights. It is of the urgent needs for balanced economic development in the basin to mitigate the conflicts and to realize integrated water resources development and management. This paper reports the progress and result of conflict management among the relevant provinces. Firstly the background of the conflict was clarified and the clues to solutions were analyzed from the viewpoint of water use rights, equity/social justice, economic efficiency and reliability of data and information. Secondly, a collaborative and win-win approach was proposed and applied to the conflict management. Finally some direction toward a conflict solution and realization of the IWRM concept was proposed for the provinces.

Concentration of rights and the access to water have become important issues in water and conflict debates in the Andes. In Bolivia the concentration of water takes place in an environment of increasing water scarcity and socio-economical differences between class, gender and ethnicity. Analysing the mechanisms of water right acquisition and access to water can serve as an input for policies to manage water-related conflicts. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate irrigation water allocation in 65 peasant communities that are part of ‘Abanico Punata’ (‘Punata Fan’), an agricultural oriented region in Bolivia, in order to understand the water-related conflicts that are taking place in the area. The results show that there is a large difference in access to water between and within the communities studied. Access is mostly determined by the number and the types of water sources households have at their disposition. Many households only have access to water from the river, which is dependent on the runoff and only provides water during the wet season. Water availability improves significantly when having access to water from reservoirs, but this access depends on customary law or on investments made during the construction of the infrastructure. Considering gender and water allocation the results show that the participation of women is small compared to that of men, as on average only 30% of water rights are registered under women’s names. Looking at ethnicity, the analysis shows that the determining factor in water allocation are the bonds of kinship and identification/recognition as a member of the community. Finally in relation to social class, it was shown that there is a correspondence between economic factors and water, especially because resources, mainly economic, enable a family to materialize their right, either during infrastructure creation or through purchase.

In 1997, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1 (SB1) and created a grassroots regional water planning process in which local representatives develop strategies to address the demand for water based on a 50-year projection. Planning is controlled at the regional level and overseen and funded by the state. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) oversees development of the regional plans and develops a State Water Plan based on them. The state of Texas consists of 16 water planning regions that include the following 11 interest groups: water districts, river authorities, municipalities, industry, environment, public, small business, counties, water utilities, electric generating utilities, and agriculture. Texas has completed three rounds of regional water planning under SB1. As part of the SB1 regional water planning effort, Water Availability Models (WAMs) are applied to determine the quantity and reliability of currently available surface water supplies. The difference between currently available supplies and the projected water demand results in either a net surplus or a shortage for water users. Water management strategies are developed to meet projected water supply shortages. The impacts of potential water management strategies involving surface water supplies are also analyzed using the WAMs. Utilizing WAMs provides a consistent approach to determining water supply availability in the state's 16 water planning regions. WAMs are run using the Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) computer software program that was developed and is currently maintained by Dr. Ralph Wurbs at Texas A&M University. The WRAP program was designed for the analysis of water availability under the Texas water right system, in which the available water is allocated based on the seniority of the water right. Consultants developed the WAMs for 23 river basins in Texas, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) maintains the WAMs and associated data. The WAMs are modified for regional water planning to include sedimentation conditions, actual operational rules, and physical limitations such as minimum water elevations. Water planning in Texas considers such issues as rapid growth in population and demands, future development of surface water resources, the need for water for the environment, limited groundwater resources in some areas, and permitting challenges. The regional planning process provides a vehicle for local input and resolution of complex, and often conflicting, water supply issues. This paper presents three examples of how WAMs have been applied to evaluate water supplies in conflicting situations.

For a long time, water has been viewed as a public good, its property right and property boundary are also blurred, which results in excessive use of water resource. At present, the community is very concerned about water right, water right theory continues to be deepened, and be actively explored in practice. In this paper, we focus on the agent relations in the management of water right, and do some analyses and researches by using the principal-agent theory. Through comparing the production conditions of the people between high efficiency and low efficiency under information symmetry or asymmetry, we suggest establishing a regulatory supervisory institution in practice, and providing appropriate incentives to the people with high efficiency to improve social welfare.

The main problem in Heihe River Basin is water shortage caused by the drastic population growth and the development of the irrigation area in the middle basin over the past decades. In order to ensure the water utilization for the ecologic sector in the downstream of Heihe River, Zhanghye city which is located in the middle reach of Heihe River Basin was selected as water-saving city to implement a new water right system with tradable water quotas. The objective of this study is to investigate the water use right (WUR) system and WUR trading in Zhangye city and to make recommendations for other water shortage areas to learn experience as well as to improve the water utilization pattern in Zhangye city. It was found out that how the water right system with tradable water quotas is carrying on in Zhangye city and experience and deficiencies are summarized for other water shortage areas in China. These results may provide a scientific basis for the decision makers and policy makers on the rational and efficient water recourse allocation.

With rapid development of 30 years, complexity of system of regional economy and ecology has been growing in the Yangtze River Delta, where water shortage due to deterioration of water quality is quite serious. Especially that deterioration of drinking water quality, even drinking water crisis caused by blue algal bloom in the Taihu Lake due to eutrophication in the Wuxi city, Jiangsu province in May, 2007, has caused great losses, which has become an urgent problem to be solved. Under background of water-saving and circular economy, the research focuses eight major river basin systems of Zhejiang province using market mechanism to improve water utilizing efficiency, not only considering bodies of water right transactions but also effect of climate change.

Aimed at the water management comparison, the water general situations in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and the Australian Murray-Darling Basin (M-DB) are introduced in the paper, the similarities between these two Basins are analyzed, the differences are mainly discussed. Based the analysis, the problems in Chinese water management institution are pointed out, such as the unclear original water right, the low water price and the deficient management institution. In the end, referred the successful experience of water management reforms in the M-DB, combined with Chinese specific circumstances, some suggestions and measurements are given out with the purpose to promote the healthy and sustainable development of water resources in the YRB.