This paper analyzes the potential for using a market to shift water from irrigation to hydropower use in periods of low river flow in the Snake River basin of Idaho. The water could be used for irrigation in most years but in dry years would be very valuable for firming up electric power supplies. A model of crop growth and water use was utilized to estimate farmer responses and resulting farm income losses due to market-restricted irrigation water supplies. Results indicate that estimated hydropower benefits are ten times greater than estimated lost farm income, so the proposed water market should be economically feasible.

The performance of six alternative measures of input-output model interconnectedness was tested on a set of fourteen empirical models for Australia, for the State of Queensland, and for subregions within Queensland. Such measures of interconnectedness could be analytically useful, along with the input-output models themselves, as descriptions of the nature of the modeled economies, as aids in model estimation, and perhaps as indications of the level of economic development. Since there is no generally accepted interconnectedness measure, the six tested measures could be judged only on their consistency of behavior and on the validity of their underlying logic. Accounting conventions and model aggregation both affected most of the measures. The results suggest that mean intermediate coefficient total per sector is the most generally useful interconnectedness measure.The concept of interconnectedness is implicit in input-output methodology. Such models are used to describe the relationships among the component sectors of an economy. Multipliers give numeric measure to the relation of a given sector to the total economy. Yet there has been only minimal attention given to holistic measures, summarizing the degree of interconnectedness of the entire modeled economy. Such measures of interconnectedness could be analytically useful, along with the inputoutput models themselves, as descriptions of the nature of the modeled economies, as aids in model estimation, and perhaps as indicators of the level of economic development.This paper will examine the performance of a number of potential measures of model interconnectedness as they are applied to a set of consistent input-output models for Australia, for the State of Queensland, and for a number of regions within Queensland.It is clear that various economies differ in degree of interconnectedness. In an economy characterized by high interconnection, a shock will be churned by successive rounds of intersectoral transactions, with the result of substantial changes in all other sectors. In a less interconnected economy, lack of intersectoral linkages means that the effects of a shock will be confined mainly to the directly impacted industry. The differences observed may be attributed to variations in degree of closure and differences in structure between economies. If an economy is relatively open, external trade will take the place of some potential linkages among endogenous sectors. For economies similar in degree of openness, one would still expect variations in interconnectedness due to structural differences; differences in what industries are important to each economy, and differences in the production technologies used. An empirical measure of interconnectedness could serve as a useful descriptive statistic, giving insight into the extent to which intersectoral linkages serve to transmit impacts throughout the sectors of an economy.

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This article demonstrates how widespread technological changes in agriculture have weakened the security of traditional appropriative water rights. Since legal protection of these rights has severely restricted the use of transfer mechanisms to reallocate water to emerging social needs, this demonstration provides a powerful and novel argument for increasing the exibility of the prior appropriation system and operating it in conjunction with other legitimate water-allocation doctrines protecting public interests in water.

This paper addresses five issues encountered when estimating secondary benefits in regional project analysis: (a) the correction for opportunity cost of factors used, (b) the treatment of mobile factors, (c) the effect of economies of size, (d) the role of forward linkages, and (e) the role of spatial structure of economic regions. The first four are reasons that only a small part, if any, of regional impacts can be treated as regional net benefits. The fifth is a reason that, when secondary benefits or damages do exist, their correct estimation can depend on the spatial structure of the affected areas.

The karez is a traditional irrigation water source, consisting of hand‐dug horizontal wells, that is still used in parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. This paper describes the construction, management, and current problems of karez irrigation systems based on investigations conducted in Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. While karezes have served irrigation needs well in the past, they are now threatened by high costs of labor for construction and maintenance, and by the encroachment of tubewells which lower the water tables on which the karez systems depend. Possible methods for improving karez performance and needs for research are discussed.

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Benefit/cost methodologies are well accepted for project analysis from a national perspective. Recent pressure to develop local decisionmaking and local funding for water projects has focused attention on the regional costs and benefits of such development. This paper examines some methodological issues that emerge as one attempts to estimate these regional costs and benefits. Uncritical use of regional economics procedures and concepts such as input-output analysis and value added to measure the primary and secondary impacts of these projects carries the risk of seriously overestimating regional project benefits. The paper concludes that new approaches to regional project analysis must be developed that will reconcile and incorporate regional economics procedures with benefit/cost methodology.