In this paper options for changing the incentive structure to reduce unsustainable groundwater consumption in Yemen are evaluated. Special attention is paid to incentives that decrease the profitability of irrigation water use and subsidies on improved irrigation technology.

This paper analyzes the structure of water transactions using data on contract duration from California. Water rights in the western United States are transferred through short-term and long- term leases as well as permanent ownership contracts. We test predictions about the type of water contracts derived from the literature on economic organization by using ordered probit models to investigate the correlates of contract duration. We confirm that long-term and permanent contracts are more likely when investments in specific assets are required for conveyance.

In 2007, the Texas legislature created a program to identify environmental flow standards statewide through the coordinated efforts of scientific and stakeholder groups and rulemaking by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. To aid in this task, a Hydrology-based Environmental Flow Regime (HEFR) method was developed that combines a suite of user-customizable hydrologic statistics with an implementation framework. Following the concepts of the Natural Flow Paradigm, the methodology includes the separation of a long-term hydrograph into key flow components (e.g.

Beginning in 1998, an innovation in water rights policy took place in Colorado. This paper analyses the diffusion of the recreational in-channel water right policy innovation among Colorado communities. This research involved in-depth case studies in 12 Colorado communities. Data include interviews, legal and legislative documents, and mass media coverage. These new water rights spread among Colorado communities through two processes. First, experts acted as information entrepreneurs providing both technical and policy information to other communities.

Climate change, water supply limits, growing environmental values of water and worldwide population growth continue to raise the scarcity of water. These challenges have intensified the transfer of water from farms to cities. Water right transfers are an important international institution to stretch water supplies. In North America's Rio Grande Basin water right transfers are an especially important institution for meeting the growth in urban demands.