Irrigation Water Rights Research Articles

Determinants of Farmers’ Acceptance of the Volumetric Pricing Policy for Irrigation Water: An Empirical Study from China

Volumetric-based pricing for irrigation water was introduced as part of a comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices in China. However, operational deficiencies and farmers’ lack of willingness to adopt the volumetric pricing policy (VPP) hinder the coordinated implementation of the reform. To address these practical challenges, we employed a binary logistic regression model to analyse farmers’ acceptance of the VPP for agricultural irrigation water usage in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. A variable set was formed by selecting potential variables from four types of influencing factors: the subject (water users), the object (water supply departments), natural condition factors, and social condition factors. Our results revealed seven factors that determine whether farmers accept the VPP: irrigation water measurement at the water inlet of a lateral canal, the irrigation water-saving rewards scale, enforcement efforts of charging by volume, the irrigation water source type, the use of agricultural water-saving for trade, financial investment in water-saving technology, and the level of irrigation water pricing. We determined the degree of influence of the seven determining factors, among which the irrigation water-saving rewards scale and enforcement efforts of charging by volume most influence farmers’ decisions on the VPP for irrigation water. The results of this study can be used as a reference for innovation of the agricultural water-saving system in Suqian City, optimisation of an accurate fiscal subsidy scale, quantification of irrigation water rights, optimisation of the measurement facility layout, and effective implementation of agricultural water rights trading. More broadly, this study provides a valuable reference for solving the difficulties faced in the comprehensive reform of agricultural water pricing in China, which includes irrigation water pricing mechanisms, management systems, subsidy mechanisms, and water-saving incentive measures.

A Trustworthy and Responsible Decision-Making Framework for Resource Management in Food-Energy-Water Nexus: A Control-Theoretical Approach

This paper introduces a hybrid framework for trustworthy and responsible natural resource management, aimed at building bottom-up trust to enhance cooperation among decision makers in the Food, Energy, and Water sectors. Cooperation is highly critical for the adoption and application of resource management alternatives (solutions), including those generated by AI-based recommender systems, in communities due to significant impact of these sectors on the environment and the economic productivity of affected communities. While algorithms can recommend solutions, effectively communicating and gaining community acceptance of these solutions is crucial. Our research stands out by emphasizing the collaboration between humans and machines, which is essential for addressing broader challenges related to climate change and the need for expert trade-off handling in the management of natural resources. To support future decision-making, we propose a successful control-theory model based on previous decision-making and actor behavior. We utilize control theory to depict how community decisions can be affected by how much individuals trust and accept proposed solutions on irrigation water rights and crop operations in an iterative and interactive decision support environment. This model interacts with stakeholders to collect their feedback on the acceptability of solutions, while also examining the influence of consensus levels, trust sensitivities, and the number of decision-making rounds on the acceptance of proposed solutions. Furthermore, we investigate a system of multiple decision-making and explore the impact of learning actors who adjust their trust sensitivities based on solution acceptance and the number of decision-making rounds. Additionally, our approach can be employed to evaluate and refine potential policy modifications. Although we assess potential outcomes using hypothetical actions by individuals, it is essential to emphasize our primary objective of developing a tool that accurately captures real human behavior and fosters improved collaboration in community decision-making. Ultimately, our aim is to enhance the harmony between AI-based recommender systems and human values, promoting a deeper understanding and integration between the two.

More risk, more money: When are payments for water savings from limited irrigation profitable for farmers?

As farmers in semiarid climates seek new ways of adding value to their operations, those with irrigation water rights are increasingly receptive to payments, or credits, for water sharing. Yet, past research on the economic feasibility of limited irrigation strategies for consumptive use (CU) savings seldom considers production risk. Using stochastic dominance, we compare the effect of three limited irrigation practices—deficit irrigation, root zone drying, and early crop maturity—on the returns to corn production for sprinkler and subsurface technology. Field-level simulations show that the practices reduce returns and increase risk, but credits for CU savings could make them economically viable for farmers. Larger credits (more money) incentivize limited irrigation at greater levels (less yield and more risk), but fully compensating farmers for risk-bearing will be costly. With sprinkler technology, root zone drying becomes risk-efficient at lower credit values than deficit irrigation. Deficit irrigation along with root zone drying become risk-efficient at the lowest credit values for subsurface technology. Thus, risk aversion could explain why some farmers choose not to share water even when credits are large enough, on average, to compensate for differences in expected returns. Improved knowledge about the profitability and risk of limited irrigation practices can increase the joint sustainability of irrigated agriculture and other societal water uses.

An Exchange Market of Water Rights for Irrigation in Tunisia: Case of Asymmetric Information on Water Quality

Tunisia, due to its location between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, is an arid country on most of its territory. Indeed, there is a marked difference between the availability of water in the North of the country and its use for irrigation in the Center. This difference, combined with the variability of the Mediterranean climate, makes water resources scarce and unequally distributed in time and space. These problems led me to search for an alternative that reduces water consumption. The present paper heads towards the creation of markets for irrigation water rights in asymmetric information on the quality of this resource to minimize water consumption. Since important consequences result from the asymmetry of information in a water market, in the case where one of the parties in a market (buyer or seller) has more information than those of the other side. The purpose of this work is therefore to consider the exchange market of water rights to measure the economic efficiency of water markets on the one hand in the presence of total asymmetry of information on water quality and on the other hand in the presence of variable costs of information. And then to see what better strategy can reduce water consumption during years of scarcity. In response, we proposed to conduct a laboratory experiment (we used 8 sessions included 32 exchange periods), to test a variety of auction treatments and to measure the impact of unequal distribution of the cost of information on water quality between the different users (buyers and sellers). Results show that small changes in the distribution of information can have a large and considerable impact on the economy. The higher the information cost, the lower the number of high-quality permits sold, and thus the lower the efficiency of the market. Thus, it can be concluded that the high responsiveness of the demand for information on the quality of the resource suggests that pricing policies can be a potential instrument to minimize water consumption.

The Relationship between Priority and Value of Irrigation Water Used with Prior Appropriation Water Rights

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.

Law and Science Series No. 1: The Contemporary Methodology for Claiming Reserved Instream Flow Water Rights to Support Aquatic Habitat

This article is the first in a series to provide information related to commonly used technical methodologies in furtherance of legal rights held by American Indian Tribes. Specifically, this article discusses the method for estimating water rights necessary to protect instream habitat to support fish. Unlike reserved water rights for irrigation — which has the well settled practicably irrigable acreage (“PIA”) standard — the United States Supreme Court has not identified a single quantification methodology appropriate for traditional uses of water. Instead, lower courts have fashioned a more ad hoc approach to quantifying traditional reserved water rights. This seems preferable given that unlike irrigation water rights, which are fairly uniform in their nature, each tribe’s traditional uses of water are unique and driven by the physical, historical, and cultural factors present for each tribe. Although the method for quantifying these rights have evolved over time, courts have slowly converged on the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) and its component part, the Physical Habitat Simulation Model (“PHABSIM”). Although the IFIM/PHABSIM method does not enjoy the de jure recognition of its sister-methodology PIA, the consistent use and acceptance of this method have caused it to become the de facto method for quantifying reserved instream water rights to protect fish habitat. The purpose of this article is to provide an explanation of the IFIM/PHABSIM methodology in an effort to put practitioners in the position to apply and, where necessary, critique the method. It proceeds in a chronological fashion; describing from beginning to end the steps necessary to develop a reserved instream water right claim using the IFIM/PHABSIM method.

Transforming hydrosocial territories and changing languages of water rights legitimation: Irrigation development in Bolivia’s Pucara watershed

Comprehending the context and history-based allocation and distribution of water use rights for irrigation is crucial for understanding social and agricultural dynamics in (semi)arid regions. Irrigation water rights are socio-legal constructs that, for their materialization, depend on the legitimacy, authority and powers backing their claims. We show how the recent conceptual notion of “hydrosocial territories” enables examining water rights claims as expressed in diverse and divergent “legitimation languages”. Water rights and their legitimation languages are embedded in site-particular normative dynamics, cultural-political histories and changing socionatural configurations. This article focuses on Bolivia’s Pucara watershed to examine the historical shifts in legitimizing water use rights, these claims’ social acceptance, and their materialization in hydraulic infrastructure and access to water. The article analyzes three historical periods in which stakeholders sustain different ways to legitimize and defend their water rights. In the first (1950–1978), acquiring rights was sustained through “hydraulic property” relationships: rights-creation by investing in infrastructure development. In the second (1978–1995), a shift takes place to more territorially-oriented claims over water rights in response to governmental attempts to reorganize hydrosocial territories. In the third period (1995–2017), steered by indigenous communities’ wider political emancipation processes and the municipalization policies, territorial claims over water sources and use rights have become decisive in the struggle over water. We show that, to enhance user-oriented irrigation development, it is necessary to understand besides the positions, interests and power structures, also the multiple languages of water rights legitimation that underlay water control and that trigger either conflict or collaboration.

Assessing landscape scale heterogeneity in irrigation water use with remote sensing and in situ monitoring

Understanding how irrigation is used across agricultural landscapes is essential to support efforts to grow more food while reducing pressures on limited freshwater resources. However, to date, few studies have analyzed the underlying spatial and temporal variability in farmers’ individual water use decisions at a landscape scale. We compare estimates of irrigation water requirements derived using state-of-the-art remote sensing models with metered abstraction records for 1400 fields over a 13 year period in the US state of Nebraska, one of the world’s most intensively irrigated agricultural regions. We show that farmers’ observed water use decisions often diverge significantly from biophysical estimates of crop irrigation requirements. In particular, our findings are consistent with widespread use of water conservation practices by farmers in drought years as an adaptive response to rising irrigation costs and regulatory water supply constraints in these years. We also demonstrate that, in any individual year, farmers observed water use exhibits large field-to-field variability, which cannot be explained fully by differences in weather, soil type, crop choice, or technology. Our results highlight the value of using both in situ monitoring and remote sensing to evaluate farmers’ individual water use behavior and understand likely responses to future changes in climate or water policy. Moreover, our findings also demonstrate potential challenges for current efforts in developed and developing countries to apply model-based approaches for field-level water use accounting and enforcement of irrigation water rights.

Comparison of allocated irrigation water rights and irrigation water use under different precipitation probabilities: a case study in North China

A comparison between gross irrigation water use (GIWU) in fields and allocated irrigation water rights amount (AIWA) is critical for evaluating any system of water rights allocation. GIWU in fields under different precipitation probabilities has been rarely calculated and compared with AIWA using households’ survey data. This study developed a method for calculating the GIWU of crops under different precipitation probabilities using field survey data from 391 households and the monitoring data of wells in Chengan County, China. AIWA was compared with the calculated GIWU and irrigation quota. Results showed that AIWA is too small to satisfy the GIWU of the principle crops. The GIWU of main cropping patterns under a precipitation probability of 75% was curtailed between 43 and 77% to fulfill AIWA. AIWA cannot support any cropping patterns when precipitation is lower than the precipitation percentile of 75%. In this condition, farmers are restricted to planting apples, cotton, and sweet potatoes. The uncertainty in precipitation was not fully considered, and the participation of farmers in water rights allocation in Chengan County was limited, which may adversely influence the income and food security of farmers.

Supplemental irrigation water rights and climate change adaptation

Adaptation to water scarcity induced by future climate change will be crucial for the viability of agricultural economies in many areas of the world. In this paper, we study the acquisition of supplemental irrigation water rights as an adaptation strategy undertaken by irrigation-dependent farmers in response to historical climate change. By exploiting the panel structure of a unique dataset of farm-level supplemental right adoption decisions in the state of Oregon, we establish a relationship between climate conditions, competition for local water resources, and the acquisition of supplemental rights. Our results indicate that a warmer, drier climate increases the likelihood that irrigated farms acquire supplemental rights, suggesting that farmers in Oregon have used supplemental rights to adapt to historical climate change. We also find evidence of heterogeneous effects suggesting that junior irrigators, groundwater-dependent irrigators, and farmers with access to a relatively lower volume of water have been most affected by historical climate change with respect to their supplemental water right acquisition decisions.

An integrated analysis of the effects of local water institutions on irrigated agriculture outcomes in the arid western United States

ABSTRACTIrrigation water rights and their governance structures constitute the foundation of local water institutions and profoundly influence water resource allocations, irrigated agricultural productivity and other consumptive water uses in the arid climate zones. This article explores the regional structures of irrigation water rights and water governance and empirically analyses the priority effects of water rights on irrigated agriculture at the micro level in Idaho, an arid and semiarid state in the western United States. We integrate a unique data set of water rights and water supplies with agricultural features and environmental characteristics into our empirical analysis. Results indicate that seniority in water resources allocation has significant, positive effects on both the average crop revenue and crop water use efficiency. Local water rights structures differ significantly in seniority and water sources from region to region. In response to the heterogeneity in local water rights structures, the aforementioned effect of allocative priority of water rights on average crop revenue per hectare and crop water productivity varies significantly, reaching up to an 87% difference, when measured across regions. In addition, the priority effects of water rights are nonlinear, which reflects the influence of historical patterns of water rights establishment on water institutions to date.

The importance of irrigation water rights: lessons from South Africa and Tunisia

With increasing water scarcity, research on policy options for improved water allocation and governance has become an urgent priority for many developing and developed countries. More and more, the focus is placed on institutional reforms but evaluating institutional alternatives is a challenging task. This paper takes a comparative approach and confronts case study data from Tunisia and South Africa, highlighting the importance of water rights reforms for irrigators. Using contingent valuation methods, the benefits for water users of changes in water rights systems are quantified. In both countries, willingness to pay estimates reveal that, from the farmers' perspective, significant improvements can be made to current water rights systems. This is valuable information for policy makers to guide institutional reforms.

Valuing Improvements in The Water Rights System in South Africa: A Contingent Ranking Approach1

Speelman, Stijn, Stefano Farolfi, Aymen Frija, and Guido Van Huylenbroeck, 2010. Valuing Improvements in the Water Rights System in South Africa: A Contingent Ranking Approach. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(6):1133–1144. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2010.00480.xAbstract: In the context of increasing water scarcity, understanding is growing that irrigation water rights are important and that a lack of an effective water rights system constitutes a major reason for inefficient water management. This study carried out a contingent ranking experiment to study how smallholder irrigators in South Africa would value potential changes in water rights. Three specific dimensions of water rights, relevant for the South African case, are considered: duration, quality of title, and transferability. Results indicate that smallholder irrigators are prepared to pay considerably higher water prices if improvements are made in the water rights system. This implies that the proposed interventions in the water rights system would improve the efficiency and productivity of the small‐scale irrigation sector. The increased willingness to pay could furthermore also assist the South African government to reach the objective of increased cost recovery.

Irrigation water rights: options for pro‐poor reform

AbstractDisempowerment and deprivation of access to irrigation water contribute to poverty. Water rights can yield significant benefits for poor farmers, but changes in water rights institutions pose risks if not well designed and developed. This paper describes pro‐poor options for improving irrigation water rights. Project interventions can deliberately negotiate water rights, for example through share systems, to reduce inequities in distribution and target improved supplies to poor people. Recourse to outside assistance for resolving water conflicts offers protection against local injustice, if water rights of user communities and individuals are suitably recognized. Measurement of water quantities, including suitable proxies such as proportional division of flows and time‐based turns, makes rights meaningful and management more accountable. Legal education and aid can empower poor water users to understand and defend their rights. Reforms in water rights can be sequenced to prioritize secure rights for poor water users. Thus, a range of institutional options is available for designing and implementing pro‐poor reforms in irrigation water rights. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The legal and administrative setting for the use of water resources in Mendoza, Argentina

The legal-administrative setting for the use of water resources in Mendoza Province is founded on different legal rules. This includes the National Constitution, the Argentine Civil Code, National Laws, the Constitution of the Provincial State, the General Water Law, (legal) administrative regulations of the General Department of Irrigation. The current water law is based on the roman law, on the Arab irrigation water rights which were brought to Argentina by the Spaniards and on the practices of the original American pre-Colombian 'intermediate law'. The latter is marked by a strong regional sense. As such, the water law is strongly influenced by the region's elements of nature and attempts to offer solutions to problems. The legal rules are discussed from a behavioral and organizational perspective. Examples from the Lower Tunuyan System are given to illustrate the day-to-day effects on irrigation water management.

Optioning Agricultural Water Rights for Urban Water Supplies During Drought

AbstractOption contracts for temporary use of irrigation water rights are evaluated as a less‐expensive institutional arrangement for providing drought insurance for urban water agencies. Desirable option contract provisions are suggested and a framework for evaluating the economic benefits of water supply options is proposed. An integrated analytical system simulating the hydrologic, institutional, and economic relationships for a case study area in northeast Colorado is developed to evaluate the economic feasibility of water supply option contracts. Estimated present value benefits and sensitivity analyses indicate that dry year water options are economically viable over a considerable range of conditions.

Economic impacts of interstate water marketing and exports: A preliminary evaluation

Purchasing irrigation water rights is a common method for western municipalities and industries to obtain a dependable water supply. The 1982 Sporhase decision removes legal barriers to development of an interstate market in water right sales. Such sales are likely to result in windfall profits for sellers, but may also result in higher transaction costs for non-selling local irrigators. Importing states will benefit from increased water availability, but exporting states will gradually lose irrigated acreage and associated economic activity. Exporting states have limited opportunities to realize any offsetting economic benefit in the water right sale process. Where water is appropriated for export, exporting states lose the opportunity to use the exported water, but may realize indirect economic benefits. Legislation may be required to protect existing water users from the physical effects of export appropriations. Additional research is needed to determine more precisely the economic effects of the Sporhase decision.

Market simulations for irrigation water rights: A hypothetical case study

The efficiency of two marketable water rights systems in a lentic (lakelike) structure is assessed quantitatively for a case study based on hypothetical irrigation water use. Water rights are simulated on the bases of (1) the expected values of water rights to the users and (2) perfect foresight on the parts of users, and the economic outcomes of these markets are evaluated from both ex ante and ex post perspectives. The market outcomes are compared to the optimal (efficient) scheme and to two alternative nonmarket policies. Distributional aspects of the markets are examined on the basis of individual payoff. Simulation results show that higher efficiency is obtained for the two market systems than for the nonmarket policies and that the market systems recoup about 95% of the economic value of the optimal distribution. The results suggest that most of the 5% efficiency loss should be attributed to the design of the market system itself (i.e., the restrictions imposed by the definition of the rights and/or the water rights allocation policy), rather than the users' inability to predict future events.

DEVELOPING COMPETITION FOR WATER IN THE URBANIZING AREAS OF COLORADO1

ABSTRACT: Rapid population growth in the metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado, is causing conflicts over water use. Two cities, Thomton and Westminster, have begun condemnation proceedings against three irrigation companies to secure agricultural water rights for municipal use. This is the first condemnation proceeding against irrigation water rights for municipal use. Should the suit succeed, over 30,000 acres of presently irrigated land will lose its water supply. There are about four hundred landowners in the area; two hundred of these are commercial farmers, including truck, dairy and specialty farms. Total agricultural production amounts to about $8 million per year. About 561 jobs related to agriculture will disappear along with about $4 million in not income.Only 6.4 percent of the farmland along the Front Range is irrigated. Continued urban growth will put pressure on the water supply of much of this land. The interested parties of the region should cooperate to lessen the impact of urban growth on agricultural lands and water by forming a metropolitan water district. Such a district could share costs of development of additional municipal water and develop systems where municipalities would recycle waste water back to the irrigated lands.

Closure to “Critchlow on Irrigation Water Rights”

Closure to “Critchlow on Irrigation Water Rights”