An allowance for water use is part of the agronomic analysis implicit in the foundation of any sensible economic evaluation of crop response or change of farming system. Diminishing returns to investment in water use efficiency imply that the optimum level of investment is determined by the...

Water use efficiency data was used to estimate the impact of reducing sales water allocations on a range of irrigated dairy farms categorised according to intensity of water right. The expected deficiency in available water was estimated for each farm category on the basis of historical demand...

An early-mid project evaluation of the benefits and costs of the Tragowel Plains Salinity Management Plan estimated the net cost after six years at A$ 5.5 million. The cumulative cash flows for the water transfer, drainage and halophyte programs were all positive with benefit to cost ratios...

Net annual costs for disposal by pumping to the Murray River, an on-farm evaporation basin, conjunctive use with surface water to irrigate dairy pasture, and undiluted irrigation of a salt tolerant grass were estimated and compared. Total conjunctive use (TCU) is the cheapest option below 10dS/m...

A false expectation based on the notion that it is easy to raise water use efficiency, and that all increases in water use efficiency will also increase net social welfare, will lead to gross underestimation of the economic impact of reduced irrigation allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin. A...

The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spent the latter decades of the 20th century fully integrating the surface and sub-surface drainage systems with the water distribution network in northern Victoria, thereby enabling complete recycling of outfalls, leaks and...

When water entitlement and water sharing systems are mis-specified, that is specified in a manner that lacks hydrological integrity, inefficient investment and water use is the result. Using Australia's Murray Darling Basin as an example, this paper attempts to reveal the economic consequences...

As Australia begins to implement the National Water Initiative, there are lessons to be learned from past experience in rural adjustment and rural assistance schemes. The experience is rich and the messages powerful. Government intervention in the process of adjustment and change can impede,...

When entitlements to access water in fully allocated river and aquifers are specified in a manner that is inconsistent with the ways that water arrives, flows across and flows through land, inefficient investment and water use is the result. Using Australia’s Murray Darling Basin as an...