On the Theory and Practice of Water Regulation

We study water regulation for a schematic water economy representing a wide range of real world situations. A water policy has inter- and intra-temporal components. The first determines the limits on extractions from the naturally replenished sources, given the stochastic nature of recharge processes associated with uncertain precipitation. The intra-temporal regulation is concerned mainly with the allocating of the extracted and produced water among the end-users. The prices that implement the optimal intra-temporal allocation are derived. Regulation issues associated with cost recovery and asymmetric information are discussed.