Irrigated agriculture and human development: a county-level analysis 1980–2010

Stephen Lauer () and Matthew Sanderson ()
Additional contact information
Stephen Lauer: Kansas State University
Matthew Sanderson: Kansas State University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2020, vol. 22, issue 5, No 27, 4407-4423

Abstract: Abstract As policy is developed to manage the declining Ogallala Aquifer, it is imperative to understand and manage the relationship between irrigated agriculture and human well-being in the High Plains region. We use a path analysis model to estimate the impact of the gallons of groundwater extracted for agricultural use and the percentage of irrigated farmland on Human Development Index scores for 234 High Plains counties between 1980 and 2010. Controlling for population, state, and the previous decade’s Human Development Index score, we find that the prevalence of irrigated agriculture on the High Plains, as measured by the percentage of farm acres irrigated and the number of gallons of groundwater extracted, has a negligible impact on county-level human development, as measured by the Human Development Index. This suggests that policymakers may employ a range of strategies for managing irrigation withdrawals from the Ogallala Aquifer without harming the well-being of area residents.

Keywords: Ogallala Aquifer; Human Development Index; High Plains; Irrigation policy; Groundwater management; Community capitals framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-019-00390-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:22:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-019-00390-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-019-00390-9

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().