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The contradiction between the supply and demand of water resources has become increasingly prominent, and water rights trading is an effective approach to increase the efficiency of water resource utilization and allocation so as to achieve sustainable use of water resources. Current transferring cost and price in China are both underestimated, taking into account the construction and maintenance fee of water conservation project and the irrigation risk compensation fee but ignoring the renovation and reconstruction fee of water conservation projects, and the compensation fee for farmers. This paper takes assignee rights, assignee capacity, and compensation to third parties into comprehensive considerations in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where the contradictions between water, energy and food are most prominent in China. Tradable water use rights were analyzed based on a water transfer pricing model. The results show that there is an obvious negative correlation between shadow water price and water usage, and the shadow price of water resources is between 10.91 and 40.52 CNY/m3, which is an optimal solution under the constraint of water usage from 6.65 to 7.03 billion m3. The reasonable water transfer price is 10.91 CYN/m3, of which the earning of the agricultural assignor was 5.96 CNY/m3. This price guarantees the interests of the assignee and is also affordable to the assignee. This research provides a specific calculation method for the transfer pricing of water rights under non-market conditions, which is of important theoretically and has practical significance.

In July 2012, the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme for all renewable energy was introduced in Japan to promote renewable energy generation. Under the FIT scheme, the installation of photovoltaic power increased exponentially as previous studies reported. Although hydropower is one of the most important sources of renewable, clean, and stable energy, few studies analyzed the trend after the FIT started in Japan. The purposes of this study were to clarify the trend of the small and medium hydropower (SMHP) installation under the FITs scheme and examine the effectiveness of FIT to SMHP. Before the FIT scheme started for SMHP in June 2012, total amounts of existing hydropower were 9,600 MW, and the only 100 MW was introduced as new introduction power for eight years. Under the FIT system, there were 140 cases on average certificated every year in the first 4years (2011–2015). On the other hand, after 2016, the number of certifications decreased obviously. The power grid limitation in high voltage connection by power companies might influence this change. We concluded that the present FIT scheme mainly contributed to the renewal or maintenance and power upgrading of existing large hydropower. If the installation pace does not change, the 2030 target will be achieved in 2100. That is because SMHP has various problems that cannot be solved by the FIT system, such as difficulty in estimating suitable sites, construction costs, and consensus-building with residents who generally have the water right.

This article examines the relationship between water right priority and value of use for rights defined by prior appropriation, and tests whether this relationship is different for rights that have been transferred from their original locations to new locations, versus those that have not. We develop an empirical model using data for agricultural irrigation water rights and show that for transferred water rights, more senior (higher-priority) rights are reallocated from lower-to higher-valued agricultural uses. For water rights that remained unchanged, we find that priority order and potential profitability, as indicated by land characteristics, are not well aligned.

This article assesses the water use impacts of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in the Upper Arkansas River basin in Kansas, a water rights retirement program aimed at reducing depletion of the High Plains Aquifer. First, I use a fixed effects model with matched samples of farmers to determine the effect of the program on the water use of individuals who retire acreage. I find that every acre authorized for irrigation that is retired in the program represents about 1.28 acre‐feet of water that would have been used each year. Further, I do not find evidence that farmers increase their water use in an effort to satisfy program eligibility requirements. Second, I estimate a probit regression to determine which factors most influence the probability that a farmer retires a water right. Using the results of the probit regression, I then simulate enrollment decisions outside of the policy region to assess how features of the program impact its cost effectiveness and how the policy design could be improved. I find that programs that base incentives on past levels of water extraction lead to more water use reductions per dollar paid.

This article investigates the process and achievement of water resources development in Manchuria during the period of Japan's rule by analyzing the urban water supply project. Thereby, this article pointed out the characteristics and limits of Manchuria development conducted by Japan from a perspective of water resources. The investigation revealed that the modern water supply projects in Manchuria were almost developed by Japan, which accelerated the urbanization and industrialization process of Manchuria through performing functions of foundational infrastructures. In view of the influences on city life and industry brought by water supply project, Japanese residents and firms benefited a lot from the water supply project. In contrast, the local people profited little from the project. This is due to the dominant position achieved by Japanese in urban economics of Manchuria as well as the limitation of water resources development in leased territories.

This study investigates the effects of instream water rights on river water conservation in Oregon in the USA. The instream water rights in Oregon were established in 1987 for the purpose of maintaining the water level and preserving the environment. “Instream” is usually defined as water for ecological conservation, landscape preservation, and recreation activities. Instream water rights in Oregon are under the control of the state government, which is trusted by the public to administer these rights. Each instream water right is given a priority order, in the same way as appropriative water rights, and is dealt with according to each priority order. That is, if the priority ranking of an appropriative water right is higher than that of an instream water right, the former is given priority over the latter in the case of drought. Therefore, it is anticipated that the effects of instream water rights on the environment would be limited, but there are no studies that empirically examine this. In order to fill in the gap, a regression analysis is conducted by using a time series data on streamflows of John Day River, Grant County, Oregon. The results of this empirical analysis show that the impact of the instream water rights on the environment is limited, but that they are positive for river environments.

Water rights and corresponding markets work to address water scarcity by establishing tradable, limited-access permits to water resources. Under certain water rights law, rights holders face uncertainty in terms of right allocation value, which is set annually based on reservoir storage, expected inflow, and expected future conditions. Such is the case in the Elqui Valley, Chile, where the economy is driven by agriculture, which requires water rights to ensure profitable yields due to a mismatch between the season of precipitation (May-August) and growing season (September-April). Perennial crop farmers address allocation uncertainty by securing additional water. A farm-scale agro-economic demand modelling framework is developed which utilizes the temporary transferability of rights to describe how grape famers may engage optimally in water markets to maximize annual profits (2000–2015), and produces an upper bound on grape farmer price negotiation space for desired allocation transactions. The results show grape farmers holding 1.0 and 2.25 water rights per-hectare could increase expected profits by 98% and 27%, respectively by engaging optimally in the temporary water market. Over the period evaluated, a grape farmer holding a single water right may expect to engage in market activity 80% of years; two rights require farmers to engage during 30% of years; with seven rights market engagement is avoided. The broader insights of the research suggest where rights holders accurately assess the value of water, optimal engagement strategies can be developed that add to farm-scale profitability, and act as an assessment of whether existing rights ownership matches risk tolerance.

Although there are considerable profits in dam projects, they contribute to significant environmental changes. Landscape patterns are influenced by human pressure and are altered continuously. This study investigated the changes in the landscape pattern of Jask’s coastal area in Iran due to the Jagin River dam’s construction. A proposed methodology employed satellite images from 1987 to 2018 and classified them by multiple approaches to make LULC maps. Eight information categories were evaluated after classification. The accuracy of the classification was determined using the error matrix and kappa index. FRAGSTATS software was applied to calculate several landscape metrics such as edge density (ED), largest patch index (LPI) and Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI). The study reported that water right especially in the recent years, because of excessive use of reserve water, decreased and downstream of Jagin River was dried. The landscapes were continuously characterized by anthropogenic pattern features (agriculture land, aquaculture land, built-up land and residential land) after the dam’s construction. Rangeland cover and riparian vegetation decreased, and agriculture land increased with in filling pattern. The sand dune area has been spread to the residential area and roots of mangrove forests, because of this reason some parts of mangrove forest dried and roads are covered by sand dune. Their temporal comparison allowed us to localize the change in landscape patterns under the study time. The results can help decision-makers to evaluate the net benefits acquired as a result of the dam projects.

Economic evaluation of farmland is an important issue in the agricultural sector. The aim of this study was to quantify the economic value of land in the farmland area of the Reclamation and Irrigation Board of Capitanata (Apulia region), differentiating by irrigation water service type (collective or self-supplied). The analysis involved a heuristic evaluation using the hedonic pricing method of the sales comparison approach. The data was gathered through a survey on a group of 75 farmers. The results showed higher capitalization values in the case of lands served by self-supplied sources from groundwater. Actually, in the long-term, an enhanced reliability was found for the self-supplied rather than collective services. The findings highlight the importance for collective water associations of differentiating water rights allocations on the basis of a volume guarantee. In future, water user associations of collective services could consider a different water right system along with price discrimination to efficiently allocate the resource among farmers and improve the sustainability of current water management.

Water rights and their associated infrastructure support human needs and wants, from agriculture to drinking water to industrial uses, but also impose significant external costs, including impacts on infrastructure, ecosystems, food production, and other human uses. In some cases, these costs can be partially abated through careful flow management, physical habitat improvement, and other direct actions, but mitigation requires funding and dedicated water, both of which typically are in short supply. Some state water rights allocation systems include consideration of the public interest when deciding whether to grant a water right, but even water rights that pass a public interest test could impose significant external costs. Current approaches do not adequately address the external public costs associated with water withdrawals, leading to over consumption of water and subsequent loss of the goods and services provided by intact water systems. Current approaches also raise distributive concerns, in that those paying the price of water development do not reap most of the benefits. In this article, I argue that the exactions framework, long used by local governments to manage or mitigate public costs associated with a particular land use, offers a better approach for water rights permitting. Local governments that issue discretionary permits for land use changes often condition the permits on exactions, either the dedication of land or the payment of funds to offset public costs associated with the land use change. Other authors have argued for applying the exactions framework to climate change and to the energy demands of new developments. Here, I make the case that imposing water rights exactions would improve water right permitting by: (1) internalizing the public costs of water withdrawals; (2) producing fairer, more efficient outcomes for other water users and ecosystems; (3) mitigating existing distributive concerns; (4) allocating dedicated funding and water for management of public costs associated with water rights, and (5) allowing regulators to condition water use with requirements and restrictions that might be a taking outside of the exactions context.

The Nile River is the longest river in the world with eleven riparian countries. The lack of effective institutional mechanism to govern the Nile waters, coupled with increasing competition for scarce water resources, has the potential to generate regional conflicts and political turmoil. The intent of this article is to provide a perspective on cooperative development and equitable benefit-sharing mechanism to govern the Nile waters—as opposed to water sharing or water right—based on the experiences of successful, existing treaties and cooperative initiatives throughout the world. The proposed water governance framework reduces the risk of disputes and conflicts with significant implications in terms of promoting regional integration, cooperation, peace, security and sustainable development. The Nile basin riparian countries would need to change the status-quo of competition and mistrust and focus on nurturing cooperation and trust building to tip the balance from potential conflict to regional integration and sustainable development through basin-wide cooperative programs and initiatives in their pursuit to develop, manage and protect the scarce, shared water resources.

The history of the Nile water use for agriculture has been associated only with Egypt and Sudan. The upstream countries have mostly managed with rain-fed agriculture with limited consumptive use withdrawal from the Nile River and tributaries. Now, global water stress has increased along with the water demand created by rapid population growth and climate change. According to the World Economic forum, at the 2017 rate, there will be a 40% gap between global water supply and demand by 2030. According to the UN in 2019, 2 billion people live under water stress and 2.2 billion do not have access to safe water. As a result, economically strong countries without freshwater supply have been observed acquiring land and water direct and indirectly for food and fodder production for their growing population. The Nile River basin, especially the Eastern Nile, is currently facing water conflict triggered by Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam, an assertion of upstream water right. The historical uneven social, economic, and military development between Europe and Africa resulted in the colonization and domination of Africa. Through long struggle and sacrifice, colonialism was driven out of Africa. But attempts are being made to keep alive colonial remnant water treaties and agreements by former colonies that benefit from them. Egypt has been aggressively frustrating upstream water projects by blocking funding mechanism and other coercive ways. The Nyerere doctrine on state succession to colonial treaties concluded that the former colonies are not bound by colonial water treaties. By 2011, Ethiopia initiated the self-financed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with storage capacity of 74 billion cubic metre and design power generation of 6000 MW. The dam is located close to Sudan and within three years of completion. Dam filling and operation plan negotiations have sparked conflict mainly between Ethiopia and Egypt. The cause for dragging the negotiations is the implicit position of Egypt that no upstream country has right for a share of the rivers that flow through their territories. Egypt’s GERD dam filling and operation proposals have ingenuously embedded minimum water guarantee issues camouflaged with droughts and prolonged droughts terms. A series of meetings was conducted between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to agree upon dam filling and operation plans with mediators and without mediators. The meetings end mostly with Egypt withdrawing when agreement was reported close to finish and the whole process to start all over again with new demands. Sudan is upstream of Egypt and downstream of Ethiopia and initially supporting the project but later was influenced to put challenges to the dam filling. Two of the negotiations on the GERD, the Washington D.C. and the African Union negotiations, are presented with implications of some of the proposals. The Declaration of Principles (DOP) signed on 23 March 2015 after several meetings was the first attempt to move the model of relationship from hostility to cooperation. This chapter analyses global and Nile Basin water stress and put in context the negotiations on GERD. Upstream and downstream transboundary relationships are analysed, and major issues of water share, dam filling, and dam operation are presented. Egypt’s extended use of Nile water with trans-basin and trans-continental water transfer to the Toshka Valley and Sinai Peninsula is creating or could create water shortage to the traditional Egyptian farmer, caused by water use policy. Water policy may favour hard cash earning large farms, usually owned by foreign investors, at the expense of the traditional small irrigation farms. Water shortage at the small farms created by Egypt’s water policy that favors big farms and transfer of water out of the Nile Basin can be blamed on upstream countries and dams specially on the GERD and Sudan.

A outorga de direito de uso dos recursos hídricos expressa as condições de uso dos recursos hídricos em um contexto de controle quantitativo e qualitativo da água e do desenvolvimento sustentável. Alguns tipos de usos são caracterizados como insignificantes, e para tanto são dispensados de outorgas. No Paraná, objeto deste estudo, as dispensas são conferidas aos usos com vazões inferiores ou iguais a 1,8m³/h. A partir dos dados públicos de outorga do Instituto das Águas do Paraná, realizou-se um diagnóstico das outorgas e dos usos insignificantes no estado e em suas grandes bacias hidrográficas. O diagnóstico mostrou ser um bom indicador econômico, caracterizando os diferentes usos da água em cada região paranaense. A influência dos usos considerados insignificantes em relação à vazão outorgável em bacias de pequeno porte no estado do Paraná revelou que a contribuição é inferior a 3% em média. Desta forma a gestão de recursos hídricos no Paraná está adequada com relação ao tratamento dos usos insignificantes dispensados de outorga e não representam uma ameaça à qualidade e à disponibilidade dos recursos hídricos do estado do Paraná.

La presente investigación se realizó con el propósito de analizar la distribución geoespacial de los aprovechamientos de agua del Acuífero del Valle de Tecamachalco Puebla, México, a fin de identificar zonas de mayor densidad de aprovechamientos hídricos e intensidad del uso del agua. A partir de datos del Registro Público de Derechos de Agua de la Comisión Nacional del Agua, de 1994 a 2014 se obtuvieron 1286 aprovechamientos, con un volumen concesionado de 194 223 870.9 metros cúbicos anuales. El análisis espacial mediante el cálculo de la densidad tipo Kernel permitió determinar la probabilidad de ocurrencia y localización en el espacio de los aprovechamientos hídricos o pozos profundos, además de su diferenciación geográfica en el acuífero en función de su distribución. Con este método se generaron mapas de tipo isoplético, que representan conjuntos de puntos en el espacio. Conforme los resultados, se encontró que predominan, en un 78%, los pozos de uso agrícola; seguido por los de uso público-urbano, con un 16,7%. El patrón de distribución muestra que las áreas de mayor densidad de pozos profundos se ubican en los municipios de Palmar de Bravo y Quecholac, e indica las zonas de mayor extracción.

Water resources provide the foundation for human development and environmental sustainability. Water shortage occurs more or less in some regions, which usually causes sluggish economic activities, degraded ecology, and even conflicts and disputes over water use sectors. Game theory can better reflect the behaviors of involved stakeholders and has been increasingly employed in water resources management. This paper presents a framework for the allocation of river basin water in a cooperative way. The proposed framework applies the TOPSIS model combined with the entropy weight to determine stakeholders’ initial water share, reallocating water and net benefit by using four solution concepts for crisp and fuzzy games. Finally, the Fallback bargaining model was employed to achieve unanimous agreement over the four solution concepts. The framework was demonstrated with an application to the Dongjiang River Basin, South China. The results showed that, overall, the whole basin gained more total benefits when the players participated in fuzzy coalitions rather than in crisp coalitions, and $$\left\{ {NHS_{Fuzzy} \,and\, SV_{Crisp} } \right\}$$ could better distribute the total benefit of the whole basin to each player. This study tested the effectiveness of this framework for the water allocation decision-making in the context of water management in river basins. The results provide technical support for water right trade among the stakeholders at basin scale and have the potential to relieve water use conflicts of the entire basin.

Irrigation of crops is responsible for 40 percent of the world’s food supply. A ubiquitous issue in irrigation is the tendency of upstream users to deplete the stream and deprive downstream users of water. Climate change threatens to exacerbate this problem by threatening the water supply to many irrigation systems, especially those that rely on snowmelt. Using a natural experiment in the Rio Grande Basin of Colorado, I examine five hypotheses about how water rights and physical properties of irrigation systems interact to produce varying levels of irrigation performance. Results indicate that enforced water rights are reliably influential, but their influence depends on diversion location, geographic features of the watershed, physical water availability, and higher level water policy. Results highlight the interdependence of institutions and geography and support a role for carefully crafted water rights congruent with cultural norms and higher level policy in adaptation to climate change.

California’s Central Valley region has been called the “bread-basket” of the United States. The region is home to one of the most productive agricultural systems on the planet. Such high levels of agricultural productivity require large amounts of fresh water for irrigation. However, the long-term availability of water required to sustain high levels of agricultural production is being called into question following the latest drought in California. In this paper, we use Bayesian multilevel spatiotemporal modeling techniques to examine the influence of the structure of surface water rights in the Central Valley on agricultural production during the recent drought. California is an important place to study these dynamics as it is the only state to recognize the two dominant approaches to surface water management in the United States: riparian and appropriative rights. In this study, Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling is employed to account for spatial processes that have the potential to influence the effects of water right structures on agricultural production. Results suggest that, after accounting for spatiotemporal dependencies in the data, seniority in surface water access significantly improves crop health and productivity on cultivated lands, but does not independently affect the ability to maintain cultivated extent. In addition, agricultural productivity in watersheds with more junior surface water rights show less sensitivity to cumulative drought exposure than other watersheds, however the extent of cultivation in these same watersheds is relatively more sensitive to cumulative drought exposure.

In many semi-arid regions, multisectoral demands often stress available water supplies. Such is the case in the Elqui River valley of northern Chile, which draws on a limited-capacity reservoir to allocate 25 000 water rights. Delayed infrastructure investment forces water managers to address demand-based allocation strategies, particularly in dry years, which are realized through reductions in the volume associated with each water right. Skillful season-ahead streamflow forecasts have the potential to inform managers with an indication of future conditions to guide reservoir allocations. This work evaluates season-ahead statistical prediction models of October–January (growing season) streamflow at multiple lead times associated with manager and user decision points, and links predictions with a reservoir allocation tool. Skillful results (streamflow forecasts outperform climatology) are produced for short lead times (1 September: ranked probability skill score (RPSS) of 0.31, categorical hit skill score of 61 %). At longer lead times, climatological skill exceeds forecast skill due to fewer observations of precipitation. However, coupling the 1 September statistical forecast model with a sea surface temperature phase and strength statistical model allows for equally skillful categorical streamflow forecasts to be produced for a 1 May lead, triggered for 60 % of years (1950–2015), suggesting forecasts need not be strictly deterministic to be useful for water rights holders. An early (1 May) categorical indication of expected conditions is reinforced with a deterministic forecast (1 September) as more observations of local variables become available. The reservoir allocation model is skillful at the 1 September lead (categorical hit skill score of 53 %); skill improves to 79 % when categorical allocation prediction certainty exceeds 80 %. This result implies that allocation efficiency may improve when forecasts are integrated into reservoir decision frameworks. The methods applied here advance the understanding of the mechanisms and timing responsible for moisture transport to the Elqui Valley and provide a unique application of streamflow forecasting in the prediction of water right allocations.

This paper discusses how an upper riparian country can establish its water right of fulfilling own water needs through development of a transboundary river in a contested terrain of water management. Citing the case of the development of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and adoption of the Declaration of the Principles by the Eastern Nile Basin States, this paper highlights the major lessons that South Asia need to learn to achieve water security in the region through cooperation. This paper further argues that if, economically weak upstream riparian country, Ethiopia can initiate such an important and strategic project, then Nepal must also be in similar position to fulfill own demand without causing significant harm, rather benefiting the downstream countries. Like Egypt and Sudan, the lower riparian countries Bangladesh and more importantly India need to be in a position to acknowledge the downstream benefit principle. This paper states that without cooperation among riparian states of the Ganges basin, the sustainable development of the region seems limited. HYDRO Nepal JournalJournal of Water Energy and EnvironmentIssue: 21, July, 2017Page: 17-24Upload Date: July 18, 2017

Efficient reallocation of existing water supply is gaining importance as demand grows and competitions among users intensify. In extremely arid regions, where deficit irrigation needs to be applied, management decisions on agricultural water allocation are often onerous tasks due to the confliction among water users. This paper presents a hydrological modeling approach to assist decision-makers and stakeholders to resolve potential water-sharing conflicts among water users. We combine the land use map with water distribution methods to solve the water allocation problems in a large basin scale. The model is tested and applied in three steps: (i) calibration and validation of water supply and demand along the Tarim River with a combined hydrological and groundwater model, (ii) developing climate change scenarios, (iii) optimizing agricultural water allocation for the entire Tarim River Basin for these scenarios and deriving of conclusions. The comprehensive management of farmland areas and water distribution strategies are investigated in the model scenarios. The results of these assessments provide opportunities for substantial improvement on water allocation and water right. The access of a user to use the water efficiently should be guaranteed, especially in the lower reaches of the river in the arid land. In practice, the hydrological model assists on decision-making for water resource management in a large river basin, and incentive to utilize water use in an efficient manner.

The problem of inter-sectoral water allocation is investigated for the utilizable water in the Cauvery river basin in the state of Karnataka, India. This paper aims to maximize the total benefit of available and utilizable water while trying to ensure a certain basic water right for every individual. It also aims to meet irrigation requirements as put forward by government (central or state) in drought contingency plan. In this context, a novel nonlinear optimization model is developed which utilizes hydro-agro-economic data collected from multiple sources. This optimization model allocates the available water among different competing sectors which includes municipality, industries and agriculture. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis evaluates the economic impact of different parameters of competing demands such as water availability, population and basic water right (quantity). The results of this study reveal that the basic water right for essential needs can be ensured with integrated management of available surface water resources. This novel optimization model and policy analysis can be readily applied to other river basins across the globe.

Author(s): Garner, Eric; McGlothlin, Russell; Szeptycki, Leon; Babbitt, Christina; Kincaid, Valerie | Abstract: In 2014, the California State Legislature enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires the formation of new local agencies, known as Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), to sustainably manage groundwater basins throughout the state. The statute represents the first statewide framework for groundwater management in California. Among other tasks, GSAs, especially those in overdrafted basins, will have to allocate available water among users and set up systems to hold pumpers to their allocated limit. However, SGMA did not change the longstanding framework of groundwater pumping rights established by California courts. This sets up the possibility of conflict between groundwater allocation plans adopted by GSAs and water rights.This Article analyzes the relationship between SGMA and water rights under the common law. It identifies a path for GSAs to allocate groundwater and limit pumping in a manner best situated to sustain judicial scrutiny. We examine how the common law defines water right priorities for groundwater pumping allocations, as well as areas where the common law provides flexibility. This flexibility allows for creativity in arriving at allocations that fit stakeholders’ goals for both sustainable and smart water management. We seek to help GSAs reduce the risk of litigation and increase the likelihood their Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) will survive litigation, without judicial modification. There are considerable measures GSAs can take to manage their litigation risk and enhance the durability of their GSPs, including making groundwater allocations in their GSPs consistent with the principles of water rights and seeking consensus among affected stakeholders. We also seek to provide a framework for courts to work out the appropriate relationship between SGMA and the common law of water rights when litigation occurs.