Work

Incentivizing water conservation in agriculture: a case study of the Great Salt Lake watersheds

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Conserving agricultural water resources is crucial for sustainable development, yet, developing effective policies is challenging due to limited site-specific information. We present a framework combining economic models and remote-sensing data to spatially explicitly assess willingness-to-accept payments to irrigators and unit water-saving costs. Applied to three major tributary watersheds of the Great Salt Lake, this framework identifies areas with the highest conservation potential and cost-effectiveness. We find that an annual water conservation goal of 581 million m3, necessary to restore the lake within 30 years, can be met by fallowing irrigated alfalfa fields. With 95% certainty, this goal would be fully achieved with annual payments of US$325 million under site-specific payments or US$376 million under county-level payments, or at least 84% achieved with US$341 million under watershed-level payments. This framework can be applied to explore policy priorities and the economic viability of land-based natural resource protection, informing funding decisions and achieving conservation goals in various contexts.

Source: Environmental Research Letters

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad99e8

Authors: Man Li, Asif Ahmed Khan

Institutions: Utah State University, Purdue University West Lafayette

Language: English

Topic: Water resources management and optimization

Subfield: Ocean Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Clean water and sanitation, Life on land, Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,820