An Estimation of the Private Value of Aquifer Recharge from Ephemeral Wetlands on the Texas High Plains

Abstract

Ecosystem services are benefits people derive from resources in ecosystems. Playa lakes in the Southern High Plains region of North America provide several ecosystem services for humans, including recharge to the Ogallala aquifer. The Ogallala aquifer occupies 450,000 km 2 , it is part of eight states, and provides irrigation water to over 25% of the irrigated land in the United States. The recharge provided by playas potentially makes them important and valuable in this region. We develop an econometric model (with spatial aspects) to determine how playas affect the water level of irrigation wells and estimate the economic value to farmers of playa ecosystem services in recharging the water in those wells. We find that, in some instances, additional playa surface area may have a small but statistically significant effect on well drawdown (and, we infer, on recharge) on nearby wells, but that the value of the additional water is likely too small to significantly affect private management decisions. Because of lack of appropriate data, these results are of only limited applicability. We therefore identify a need for more research on the effects of management of sedimentation of playa wetlands as a key component that may improve the findings reported here.

Revealing the economic value of managed aquifer recharge: Evidence from a contingent valuation study inItaly

“…In 2013, Bian et al . [] valued the recharge of the Ogallala aquifer in North America by playa lakes. The valuation was based on the estimation of the shadow price that local cotton farmers might pay as a result of an increase of depth‐to‐water in the local wells.…”

Private Actions and Preferences for Coordinated Groundwater Conservation in Colorado's Republican River Basin

“…More recently, economists have utilized contingent valuation methods to evaluate WTP for increased quantities of groundwater (Stenger and Willinger ; Bian et al. ; Damigos et al. ).…”

“…A key finding associated with this research is that values related to improvements in groundwater quality depend on perceptions of baseline groundwater quality in relation to standards set by health authorities. More recently, economists have utilized contingent valuation methods to evaluate WTP for increased quantities of groundwater (Stenger and Willinger 1998;Bian et al 2013;Damigos et al 2017). For example, research by Damigos et al (2017) estimates economic values associated with a groundwater recharge project in Italy and finds that nearly three-quarters of the value associated with additional groundwater comes from nonuse values.…”