Conservation-Targeted Hydrologic-Economic Models for Water Demand Management

摘要

Two basin-wide hydrologic-economic optimization models taking into account two interpretations of water consumption are presented to estimate how much water can be conserved while maintaining at least the same level of economic output. The key characteristics of different users, such as the consumption ratio and productivity, and the interactions among users are considered. Water consumption is interpreted as either being water diverted to consumptive users or water consumed by all users. The models are applied to the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) in southern Alberta, Canada, where water scarcity is a severe issue. The results reveal that a substantial amount of water can be conserved without sacrificing the overall economic output. Specifically, irrigation users contribute the most to water conservation and experience economic losses because of less water consumption but are compensated by benefits transferred from the municipal and industrial (MI) users. Because MI users produce additional economic benefits by utilizing the conserved water, the same level of system-wide aggregated benefits is retained. A further analysis indicates that taking interactions among irrigation and MI users into account is of great importance because the overall water conservation is very limited if MI users act independently. The implications of the results are helpful for facilitating a better understanding of current water usage and can assist policy makers in making informed decision for water demand management.