Water rights markets in the 21st century : transaction costs and optimal environmental water portfolios in Colorado, USA
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In arid regions across the world, water markets are implemented to efficiently manage water scarcity and restore streamflows for fully or partially dewatered ecosystems. The western United States hosts prominent water markets, with an annual average of more than $500 million traded and environmental transactions comprising about a third of the volume traded from 2008-2018. However, these markets are commonly described as failing to achieve efficient water management because of substantial legal barriers to trade. Also, environmental water marketing remains immature, with mostly opportunistic transactions. This dissertation examines potential solutions to these shortcomings in the state of Colorado, which has some of the most developed water markets and water law in the U.S. First, I examine barriers to trade -- non-water transaction costs incurred for legal approval of water transfers -- using quantitative and qualitative survey data from 100 water professionals. My statistical models depict physical and legal drivers of transaction costs and show that legal changes that clarify the definition of water rights couple some of the greatest transaction cost reductions with relatively low negative externalities. Second, I develop an integrated ecohydrologic-economic-legal simulation-optimization model that maximizes ecological outcomes from environmental water marketing in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Colorado River is the world's most overallocated river. Results show that optimal environmental water rights portfolios consist heavily of informal water transactions that evade legal barriers but provide no legal protection for restored streamflows; include large reservoir leases that offer temporal flexibility and achieve scale economies; and select transactions in especially dewatered river reaches. Taken together, the results illustrate how 19th century water rights law constrains 21st century water markets.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Womble, Philip James |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Gorelick, Steven M |
| Degree supervisor | Thompson, Barton H, Jr |
| Thesis advisor | Gorelick, Steven M |
| Thesis advisor | Thompson, Barton H, Jr |
| Thesis advisor | Hanemann, W. Michael |
| Degree committee member | Hanemann, W. Michael |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Philip Womble. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Philip James Womble
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...