Water Transfer Strategy: Energy vs. Agricultural Use

摘要

In some arid and semiarid regions where most water is appropriated for irrigation, water has been recognized as the most important limiting factor for energy development. Therefore, a water transfer from agricultural to energy use should be considered, since industry yields the highest value of water and thus constitutes the highest productivity. A transfer of the available water from agriculture to industry or energy in communities which are basically agricultural would tend to upset the familiar pattern of life and would result in a number of social costs to farmers and third parties. The required acreage of transferred irrigated lands increases as the total energy requirement increases. To decrease the energy cost of agricultural water right reimbursement, energy developers can sell over-transferred water rights to downstream users from the reach where no more energy water is needed.