Stochastic mixed-integer optimization is used to identify a portfolio of longand short-term supply and conservation actions for a municipal water system to cost-effectively accommodate a distribution of water shortages. Alternative robust, grey-number, and best/ worst case formulations systematically explore implications of uncertainties in action costs, life spans, water volumes gained or save...

This paper employs an economic-engineering optimization model to explore water supply options for environmental restoration of the Colorado River Delta, Mexico. Potential water sources include reductions in local agricultural and urban water use through water markets, wastewater reuse, and additional Colorado River flows from the United States. For these alternatives, the optimization model est...

Italian rice production is progressively threatened by water scarcity. Some strategies have been developed to reduce water use. Nevertheless, reducing water irrigation amounts may lower paddy rice production. This publication compares the productivity and the economic performances of traditional and modern rice varieties in northern Italy using two different water management systems. The object...

The shrinking water supply together with our continuously increasing demand for this resource has stimulated a renewed interest in reverse osmosis (RO) as a water treatment unit process. A wider use of RO membranes, however, is impeded by a group of phenomena that lead to permeate flux decline, deterioration of permeate water quality, shortening of membrane life, and thus to a substantial incre...

A two stage linear programming approach is used to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of individual households or groups of households for changes in a combination of probabilistic water supply reliability and retail price of water. By modeling the costs (financial and ‘perceived’) of implementing long and short-term conservation measures and assuming rational (expected value cost minimizing...

It is widely argued that farmers are unwilling to pay adequate fees for surface water irrigation to recover the costs associated with maintenance and improvement of delivery systems. In this paper, we use a discrete choice experiment to study farmer preferences for irrigation characteristics along two branch canals in Punjab Province in eastern Pakistan. We find that farmers are generally willi...