Ariel Dinar Libri

Focusing on policy interventions for improved water allocation, this monograph employs a unified macro-micro analytical framework to evaluate case studies from Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, and Mexico. By comparing diverse water management strategies, it highlights the trade-offs between social allocation preferences and their impacts on sector productivity and welfare distribution. The authors also pinpoint research gaps related to climate change, globalization, and food crises, proposing a framework for future analyses in these areas.

Exploring the intricate connections between local and global dynamics, this book examines how decisions and actions at one level can significantly impact the other. It highlights both the beneficial and detrimental externalities that arise from globalization, underscoring the need for effective policy interventions to address these complex relationships.

Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students with a solid background in economic principles and methods will benefit from understanding the role of the comprehensive framework outlined. Water policy practitioners will also learn from the empirical aspects and policy discussions, and from the case studies included.

Jan van Schilfgaarde, USDA Agricultural Research Service and National Research Council Committee on Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems In 1982, a startling discovery was made. Many waterbirds in Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge were dying or suffering reproductive failure. Located in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley) of California, the Kesterson Reservoir (Kesterson) was used to store agricultural drainage water and it was soon determined that the probable cause of the damage to wildlife was high concen trations of selenium, derived from the water and water organisms in the reservoir. This discovery drastically changed numerous aspects of water management in California, and especially affected irrigated agriculture. In fact, the repercussions spilled over to much of the Western United States. For a century, water development for irrigation has been a religiously pursued means for economic development of the West. The primary objective of the Reclamation Act of 1902 was, purportedly, the development ofirrigation water to support family farms which, in turn, would enhance the regional economy (Worster, 1985).