Optimal groundwater management under climate change and technical progress

Abstract

We develop a dynamic model of groundwater extraction for irrigation where climate change and technical change are included as exogenous state variables in addition to the usual state variable of the stock of groundwater. Our key contributions are (i) an intuitive description of the conditions under which groundwater extraction can be non-monotonic, (ii) a numerical demonstration that extraction is non-monotonic in an important region overlying the Ogallala Aquifer, and (iii) the predicted gains from management are substantially larger after accounting for climate and technical change. Intuitively, optimal extraction is increasing in early periods when the marginal benefits of extraction are increasing sufficiently fast due to climate and technical change compared to the increase in the marginal cost of extraction. In contrast, most previous studies include the stock of groundwater as the only state variable and recommend a monotonically decreasing

Quantifying irrigation adaptation strategies in response to stakeholder-driven groundwater management in the US High Plains Aquifer

“…Policy and management institutions developed to address this sustainability challenge differ widely across the HPA and beyond. Aquifer depletion can be costly, since the value of irrigation water should increase over time considering expected future higher yielding varieties and irrigation's ability to mitigate droughts, which are likely to become more frequent and severe with climate change (Zipper et al 2016, Foster et al 2017, Quintana Ashwell et al 2018, USGCRP 2018. At the same time, improved management could boost crop water productivity around the world (Brauman et al 2013, Rattalino Edreira et al 2018, indicating producers might obtain similar yields using less water and thus slow the rate of aquifer depletion.…”

Optimal Management of Irrigation Water from Aquifer and Surface sources

“…The key aquifer parameters to estimate average groundwater pumping costs are surface water elevation (S L ), water table elevation (h t ) and well drawdown (d). For each period, the average pumping cost is calculated using a relative lift formulation (Brill and Burness, 1994;Burness and Brill, 2001;Quintana Ashwell and Peterson, 2016;Quintana Ashwell, Peterson, and Hendricks, 2018;Sloggett and Mapp, 1984):…”

“…In areas where groundwater demand for irrigation exceeds its natural rates of recharge, the MRVAA is depleting at unsustainable rates (Quintana-Ashwell et al, 2020;Yasarer et al, 2020). Untimely aquifer depletion imposes economic losses that are not immediately evident to groundwater-dependent producers (Quintana-Ashwell, Peterson, and Hendricks, 2018). This paper focuses on an area in the Mississippi side of the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) where relatively abundant groundwater makes development of infrastructure to capture and store pluvial and irrigation runoff not immediately necessary, or financially viable, for private farmers.…”

Modelling of potential groundwater artificial recharge in the transboundary Algero‐Tunisian Basin (Tebessa‐Gafsa): The application of stable isotopes and hydroinformatics tools*

“…These constraints have made water resources a scarce and precious substance unevenly distributed in time and space. The scarcity of water resources, combined with the growing needs, requires particular attention to the water sector, in particular to actions for development, planning, and management (Quintana Ashwell, Peterson, & Hendricks, 2018;Anis et al, 2019;Singh et al, 2019;Ncibi et al, 2020).…”