Managing Urban Water Supply

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

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2. Introduction

   • Donald E. Agthe, R. Bruce Billings, Nathan Buras

   Pages 1-9

3. Hydrology and Water Supply

   • Nathan Buras

   Pages 11-22

4. Price Rationing

   • Donald E. Agthe, R. Bruce Billings

   Pages 23-43

5. Water Supply Economics

   • Benedykt Dziegielewski

   Pages 45-70

6. Elasticity of Demand for Water Resource Managers

   • Donald E. Agthe, R. Bruce Billings

   Pages 71-86

7. Water Transactions as an Urban Water Supply Strategy

   • Bonnie G. Colby

   Pages 87-101

8. Market Structure and Price Regulation

   • Donald E. Agthe

   Pages 103-113

9. Industrial and Commercial Water Demands

   • Steven Renzetti

   Pages 115-125

10. Public Drinking Water in the United States

    • Ronnie Levin

    Pages 127-145

11. Water System Organization and Financial Decision Making

    • R. Bruce Billings

    Pages 147-165

12. Drinking Water Disinfection in the United States: Balancing Infectious Disease, Cancer and Costs, Market and Nonmarket Failures

    • Ronnie Levin, Mark A. R. Kleiman

    Pages 167-185

13. Effects of Land Subsidence in the Greater Houston Area

    • Devin L. Galloway, Laura S. Coplin, Steve E. Ingebritsen

    Pages 187-203

14. Solving Groundwater Overdraft in Arizona Urban Areas

    • Donald E. Agthe, R. Bruce Billings

    Pages 205-218

15. Urban Water in Israel

    • Yoav Kislev

    Pages 219-240

16. The British Experience

    • Kenneth F. Clarke

    Pages 241-255

17. Concluding Remarks

    • Donald E. Agthe, R. Bruce Billings, Nathan Buras

    Pages 257-269

18. Back Matter

    Pages 271-277

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We, the editors, have long believed that a strong knowledge of relatively simple economic and engineering concepts is valuable in solving water management problems. The lack of such knowledge has been apparent to us in some of the journal articles, research proposals and books we have reviewed. The articles which have been written concerning specific local water economies and management issues are scattered over a wide variety of journals, making them hard to access. Most of the extensive water resources literature is concerned with large regional water projects or with narrow technical and regional issues. This book was written to make practical economic and engineering concepts readily available to urban water supply managers, thereby filling a gap in the available literature. It is concerned with decisions made daily, monthly, or annually by managers of urban water supply systems. The book includes basic chapters presenting supply and cost concepts, calculation of demand elasticities, use of marketing concepts, public goods analysis, water markets, industrial water demand and the use of price in water conservation. The authors have included multiple examples of how these concepts can aid in managing urban water supply. The water provider is generally a governmental entity or regulated private utility. Most books on public utilities and their management emphasize gas, electricity, or telephone rather than water. Water is different because of m~or variations in quality by source and the necessity for proper disposal of waste water.

• USA
• United Kingdom
• Urban Areas
• groundwater
• hydrology
• hydrogeology

• Tucson, USA

  Donald E. Agthe

• Department of Economics, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

  R. Bruce Billings

• Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

  Nathan Buras

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