Groundwater management is conducted in spatial aquifers where well pumping results in localized cones of depression. This is in contrast to the single-cell aquifer used in most economic analyses that assumes groundwater depletion occurs uniformly over a study area. We address two aspects of the...

Groundwater use plays an important role in agriculture where the lack of timely rainfall can lower yields. Policy makers strive to conserve ecosystem services, such as groundwater supply, while at the same time providing for economic growth. We develop a spatially explicit landscape level model...

Expanding irrigated agriculture and drought in the Lower Mississippi River Basin have led to large-scale withdrawals of groundwater and a consequent decline in the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer. Conserving the aquifer, while at the same time providing for economic growth, is a...

In this paper, we analyze the optimal spatial pattern of open space and residential development in an urban model that includes provision of both local and global public goods. In our model, households choose where to live based on land prices, proximity to employment, and amenity values that...

We examine how much on-farm reservoirs can increase groundwater quantity and improve surface water quality using a spatial-dynamic model of farm profit maximization in the Arkansas Delta. Sensitivity analysis of the farm profit objective by including the value of surface water quality and the...

We model water use, aquifer recharge and producer returns over 30 years in three watersheds to determine impact of modified water cost and construction of reservoirs. To maintain groundwater resources, raising cost of pumped water by a buffer value to the aquifer resource and using surface...

We evaluate how land use change and the value ecosystem services affect the decision to invest in public land acquisitions. Our application is for the state of Minnesota, and we consider the acquisitions by Department of Natural Resources over the last two decades. We calculate a return on...

Using county-level panel data, we estimate duration models to study the timing of rapid farmland conversion events. Results suggest that income and the proximity to major highways are the principal determinants of rapid conversion events (and also responsible for prolonging these events). In...