SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WATER MARKETS : POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS

Calvin is an economic-engineering network flow optimization model. It is used to estimate how a market would affect overall southern California water use, to preliminarily assess the economic benefit of more flexible water allocation policies, and to explore the characteristics of an ideal market. Results suggest benefits for implementing water market or other transfer mechanisms (reallocation of agriculture water for exemple). An ideal water market would reduce more costly urban water shortages, reducing the demand for increased imports from outside of southern California. These benefits could accrue from expanding some conveyance and storage facilities.