This study describes the architecture and capabilities of an open source agent-based Java platform that permits the systematic study of interactions among hydrology, climate, and strategic human decision-making in a watershed over time. To demonstrate the platform's use and capabilities, an application is presented in accordance with ODD protocol requirements that captures, in simplified form, the structural attributes of the Squaw Creek watershed in central Iowa. Illustrative findings are reported for the sensitivity of farmer and city social welfare outcomes to changes in three key treatment factors: farmer land-allocation decision method, farmer targeted savings, and levee quality effectiveness for the mitigation of city flood damage.
Water is necessary for human survival. The United Nations identified "equitable access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as an integral component of the realization of all human rights" (UN General Assembly, 2010). Water is also an economic good, whose price should reflect its value to society and the long-run costs associated with its treatment and distribution to customers (Olmstead, 2010). Utilities typically price water to recover costs of provision and recent evidence suggests that utilities do not price water to reflect scarcity (Luby et al., 2018). To maintain current levels of service in the United States, however, water and wastewater infrastructure will require substantial investment over the next several decades, with some estimates totaling more than 1-trillion USD (American Water Works Association, 2012). Compliance with the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act further adds to water supply costs (Jerch, 2019; National Academy of Public Administration, 2017). The vast majority of those costs will end up on household water and wastewater bills, potentially tripling the current cost of water and sewer service for US households (American Water Works Association, 2012). Water providers are thus faced with balancing multiple, competing objectives: efficient pricing, covering costs, and also keeping water bills affordable (Martins et al., 2016;Whittington et al., 2015).In this paper, we demonstrate how widespread water affordability issues are in the US, how policies can be designed to reduce burdens on low-income populations, and how underlying economic incentives drive policy effectiveness. We estimate that approximately 10% of households in the US face water affordability concerns
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