Date of Award:

5-1982

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Economics and Finance

Department name when degree awarded

Economics

Committee Chair(s)

Rangesan Narayanan

Committee

Rangesan Narayanan

Committee

Kenneth Lyon

Committee

Basudeb Biswas

Committee

Bruce Bishop

Abstract

The demand for water is increasing in the western United States. Coupled with growing emphasis on development of the western resources, the limited supply of water will create an expanding competitive market for water by agricultural, energy, industrial and municipal users.

The Upper Colorado River Basin is faced with a question of what water conservation measures in the agricultural and energy sectors can be instigated without reducing agricultural output. If the decision is made to adopt water conservation technology measures, this study addresses the impacts in the private and public investment sectors under alternative public policies, i.e., regulation or non-regulation of salinity, to invest or not to invest in water conservation measures such as evaporation suppression and phreatophyte control, and to invest or not to invest in salinity control projects.

A linear programming model was developed to determine the optimal allocation of water between agriculture and energy as well as the trade off associated with the various policy alternatives of the public sector. The agricultural sector incorporated consumptive use of crops and various irrigation systems. The energy sector incorporated consumptive use of various water conservation technologies and production capacities.

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