With an increasing population and rapid development of the economy and society of the Yellow River Basin region, the Yellow River is at crisis point. The discrepancy between supply and demand of water resources is a key issue. In 2000–2006, the mean annual discharge of the Yellow River entering the delta was 13.2 billion m³, a reduction of 18.6 billion m³ compared with the 1980s, and 9 billion m³ less than in the 1990s. The water requirements of various sectors are increasing. Large amounts of water essential to maintain the health of the delta ecosystem have been diverted for other users.

Water demand in a viable economy tends to be dynamic: it changes over time in response to growth, drought, and social policy. Institutional capacity to re-allocate water between users and uses under stress from multiple sources is a key concern. Climate change threatens to add to those stresses in snowmelt systems by changing the timing of runoff and possibly increasing the severity and duration of drought. This article examines Snake and Klamath River institutions for their ability to resolve conflict induced by demand growth, drought, and environmental constraints on water use.

This article examines the voluntary approach to environmental flow management in six western states of the United States. These states use the legal system for water allocation known as prior appropriation which allows market transfers of water rights or leases to beneficial uses, here for instream flows. Funding sources are required to provide for market transfers to e-flows (environmental flows), and the present study indicates the inadequacy of support.

This paper uses the hedonic price method to estimate the value of an acre-foot of irrigation water in Douglas County, Oregon. The analysis uses detailed information from 113 arms-length transactions of farmland for 2000 and 2001. The estimated willingness-to-accept of $261 to sell an acre-foot of irrigation water is consistent with other studies and recent transactions in the study area. Estimates for the value of leasing water are provided using a range of discount rates and leasing periods.

Tradable water right systems are becoming important ways to achieve distributive efficiency in water resources. In 2002, China's Ministry of Water Resources initiated a pilot project in Zhangye City in Northwest China. The project was designed to establish a new water use rights system with tradable water quotas with the hope of reallocating water resources more efficiently through market-based instruments. However, the tradable water right system is not well enforced.

Water is critical to protecting wetlands in arid regions, especially in agriculture-dominated watersheds. This comparative case study analyzes three federal wildlife refuges in the Bear River Basin of the U.S. West where refuge managers secured water supplies by adapting to their local environmental context and their refuge's relationship to agriculture in being either irrigation-dependent, reservoir-adjacent or diked-delta wetlands.