How Agricultural Water Conservation Can Save the Great Salt Lake

Man Li and Asif Ahmed Khan

Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, 2024, vol. 39, issue 4

Abstract: Water is essential for meeting basic human needs and sustaining healthy ecosystems. The demand for water is rising due to rapid population growth, urbanization, and increasing use in agriculture, industry, and energy sectors. Even with advancements in water-use efficiency, water stress and scarcity remain critical issues worldwide, including in Utah. This article highlights a recent study assessing the economic feasibility of protecting Utah’s shrinking Great Salt Lake (GSL) by incentivizing agricultural water conservation. The study demonstrates that an annual water conservation goal of 471 thousand acre-feet (KAF) can be met by fallowing irrigated alfalfa fields, with unit water-saving costs ranging between $688 and $806 per acre-foot (AF) (Li and Khan, 2024a). These costs are comparable to the lowest-tier residential water rates in many Utah cities. This research could support agricultural water conservation decisions, and the methodology is transferable to other regions seeking to preserve land-based natural resources.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaeach:348176

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348176

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