Estimating the value of water among regional economic sectors using the 1972 national interindustry format

: Recent growth in irrigated agriculture and metropolitan areas of the Western United States suggests that if growth continues, there will be a potential shortage in future water resources. Compound the expansion of agriculture and municipal demands with possible enaction of instream flow requirements, a method to allocate water among alternative economic sectors in the West is needed. In this study, an interindustry-linear programming model based on the 1972 national model format is used to allocate scarce water supplies among competing regional economic sectors. The shadow price of water and the sectorial value of water at different availabilities for each competing sector is derived. Also, economic sectors are ranked by value of water at different water availabilities.