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In many regions, irrigation water is pumped from an underground aquifer that receives little or no recharge. With an exhaustible water supply, water available in year t + 1 depends on quantity of water available in year t − 1 and the quantity withdrawn in year t. As the water supply decreases, pumping costs increase and returns to water and management decline.The exhaustible nature of the water supply causes an especially difficult problem for the farm operator in that he must allocate water within and among years. In addition, the farm operator is faced with irrigation investment decisions; e.g., type of irrigation distribution system to use. He must consider simultaneously, labor intensive versus capital intensive systems and effect of each system on present value and economic life of his specific water supply. To manually evaluate the alternatives, making the necessary calculations would be prohibitive in terms of both cost and time.

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