In the first chapter, I consider the institutional structures as well as the doctrines typically encountered in the surface water sector. To investigate the sources and methods of government support in the water sector, I categorize different sorts of government support according to the location...

Historically, in Spain and most European countries, forest fire budgets have never been subjected to an objective and rigorous economic analysis indicative of the returns on investments in fire management protection programs. Thus far we have witnessed expansive growth of costs without any...

The innovation process is a fundamental source of economic growth and recent research in urban economics and economic geography suggests that geographical proximity between innovators may be important to technological innovation. Many authors also claim that the rise of a knowledge-based economy...

This article examines the economic impacts of policy alternatives for addressing allocative inefficiencies among agricultural, urban, and environmental uses of federal water. The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, composed of multiple incentive-based and command-and-control policies, forms...

This research focuses on urban water policy. The three papers extend the literature through economic application, taking theory in a direction that informs water resource managers on optimal decision-making or a better approach to management. Three primary results are: first, that the optimal...

Public mediated resource planning is quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception. Unfortunately, supporting tools are lacking that interactively engage the public in the decision-making process and integrate over the myriad values that influence water policy. In the pages of this report...

Public water utilities have increasingly turned to increasing block rate price structures to reduce water consumption and signal the high environmental costs of water supply. Hsu evaluates the impact of a new and substantially higher price block added to the existing block rate price structure...

In most urban cities across Australia, water restrictions remain the dominant policymechanism to restrict urban water consumption. The extensive adoption of waterrestrictions over several years means that Australian urban water prices have consistently not reflected the opportunity cost of water...

Of water withdrawn for agricultural crop irrigation, a portion is consumed and the remainder comes back to the hydrologic system as return flows. Previous models of irrigation water demand have mostly focused on the change in withdrawals in response to price changes, even though knowledge of the...

We examine the use of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecasts for flood planning in the Pacific Northwest. Using theories of resource mobilization as a conceptual foundation, the paper relies on: 1) case studies of three communities vulnerable to flooding that have had access to long-term...