FORECASTING IRRIGATION WATER DEMAND: A STRUCTURAL AND TIME SERIES ANALYSIS

An expected utility model was developed to capture the impacts of wealth, other economic, and institutional factors on irrigation acreage allocation decisions. Predicted water demand is derived from an expected utility structural model and various ARIMA models. No significant differences arise between forecasted irrigation acreage and, thereby, amount of forecasted water demand between econometric and time series models. However, estimates of water demand differ significantly from a Blaney-Criddle-based physical model. Keywords: water forecasting, acreage response, water slippage, BC formula