Modeling Regional Agricultural Production and Salinity Control Alternatives for Water Quality Policy Analysis
针对科罗拉多河流域盐度外部性问题，建立流域非线性规划模型，评估现行政策效率并确定最优水质标准，揭示用水、区域与控制策略间的经济权衡。
Abstract Water development and allocation to competing uses without well‐defined water quality rights contribute to water use externalities. Federal legislation to address the salinity externalities in the Colorado River Basin comprises a set of arbitrary quality standards and millions of dollars in federal projects. This study specifies economic criteria to empirically determine first‐ and second‐best quality standards and to indicate opportunities for efficiency gains in existing policy. A basin‐wide, nonlinear programming model optimizes river water quality, resource allocation, production levels, and total expenditures for control. Revealed are the economic tradeoffs between water uses, regions, and control strategies.