Year: 1978
Type: article
Abstract: Water, like many other natural resources, is becoming a scarce and very valuable commodity as man places ever increasing demands upon his physical environment. Although water related problems may not yet be as severe in North Dakota as in more industrially advanced or more arid regions, there may be potential for such problems to develop as the state strives for economic expansion via energy development, increased industrialization, or more intensive irrigation of agricultural lands. Future economic growth may conceivably be limited as a result of implicit and explicit constraints imposed by the availability of adequate water supplies. The present investigation seeks answers to several broad quantitative questions. Fundamentally, will water become a constraint to western North Dakota economic growth? If so, at what level of activity will this constraint become apparent? Finally, how will the composition of economic activity affect the behavior of the constraint? Will vast increases in thermoelectric generation, for example, hasten the arrival of the constraint? Policy formulation in areas of water resource development, allocation, and use must logically encompass such broad considerations at a minimum.
DOI: 10.68479/001c.8512
Authors: Brian Eggleston, Mark S. Henry
Institutions: University of North Dakota, Clemson University
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2255368043