In agricultural regions with highly developed water supply and distribution infrastructure, hydrologic variability can impact the financial stability of water provision institutions such as irrigation districts and groundwater banks. These institutions’ revenues are based on delivery fees and can fluctuate from year to year based on the availability of water. Revenue variability can be quite disruptive given that these institutions often have large, fixed costs related to infrastructure (debt service, construction, maintenance). In the Central Valley of California, which supports irrigation via a complex supply system, a number of new water storage and conveyance projects are currently under consideration, and these have the potential to increase total water yield and productivity in the region. However, these infrastructure projects represent expensive, irreversible decisions, and generally require buy-in and monetary support from coalitions of stakeholders. Thus, it is increasingly important to understand not only how such projects will affect the total volume of water deliveries, but also how such benefits and costs will be distributed among stakeholders and across time. 

This study assesses a variety of collective infrastructure investments in order to understand how they affect water supplies and financial risk for agricultural water institutions. This involves a search for viable coalitions of stakeholders, in keeping with the voluntary, bottom-up nature of joint infrastructure investments. Projects are evaluated in terms of multiple objectives, such as water supply reliability, financial risk, and equity across partners. Our analysis is performed utilizing the California Food-Energy-Water System (CALFEWS), a multi-reservoir simulation model that uses snowpack-derived streamflow projections to estimate surface water storage, water exports through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, irrigation district deliveries, and the operation of groundwater banking projects in the Kern River Fan.

Balancing Heterogeneous Impacts and Preferences in the Search for Collective Water Supply Infrastructure Investments

Created in 1999, the Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) is the recognized leader within ASCE for the integration of technical expertise and public policy in the planning, design, construction, and operation of environmentally sound and sustainable infrastructure impacting air, land and water resources.

[Paper Proceedings](https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483466)

Conference DOI: https://doi.org/10.26226/m.6329c39b68fb0e00131f77d2