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Research Paper 3
Research Paper 3
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Handling Editor - Dr Z Xiying Allocation mechanisms for irrigation water distribution are largely categorized into demand and supply based
methods. Traditional supply-based mechanisms are built on the notion of equitable distribution, where the water
Keywords: rights of each farmer determine their entitlement of irrigation water. However, many studies show that these
Water allocation mechanism mechanisms often result in inefficient utilization and wastage of surface water. On the other-hand, the devel
Equity
opment of smart, ICT driven technologies have ushered-in the age of demand based delivery, which ensures an
Water rights
optimal utilization of water, based on some selected objective. These allocation schemes, while rapidly being
adopted in a multitude of irrigation systems worldwide have been shown to result in inequitable water distri
bution, and special measures need to be taken to protect vulnerable farmers in the system. In this paper, we
present a demand-driven allocation scheme that incorporates an initial entitlement for each farmer to ensure
equitable water allocation. The allocation mechanism has two stages: first, initial allocation of surface water
based on individual water rights; second, a demand-based distribution coupled with an auction-based pricing
mechanism. The initial allocation from the first stage may be adjusted in the second stage if the corresponding
farmers do not require water at that point in time. After the mathematical formulation of the allocation scheme,
we simulate its implementation for a selected irrigation district in the central Punjab region of Pakistan. Results
from exhaustive numerical simulations show that the proposed mechanism improves performance with respect to
socio-hydrological metrics such as equity, reliabili‘ty, compliance and consistency. Due to the demand-based
reallocation stage of the proposed mechanism, this increase in performance does not come at the cost of
degraded utilization of irrigation water as compared to a purely demand-based allocation scheme.
1. Introduction mechanism to allocate surface irrigation water that not only promotes
equity but also does so in a manner that does not compromise the uti
Water scarcity is increasing worldwide due to climate change, pop lization of irrigation water.
ulation growth, and growing economic activities Rey et al. (2019). Historically, large-scale irrigation systems were developed predom
Approximately 72% of the global freshwater is used in the agriculture inantly as supply-based ones, with water allocation done through some
sector, of which irrigation water is a major component UN (2021). Water socially accepted notion of water rights. Many of these supply-based
scarcity issues are compounded in agricultural systems due to transport systems are still active today in various regions around the world, e.g.,
losses, low profit margins, and an increasing deficit between supply and Pakistan, Mexico, Chile, and Australia (Delorit et al., 2019; Gleick, 2003.
demand of irrigation water. Alleviating the imbalance between supply In such settings, water rights systems are devised as a framework to
and demand requires an efficient water allocation mechanism. Alloca encompass all issues of social justice in demarcating the user base,
tion mechanisms not only determine the social distribution of water determining the share of water, and delivering the water to individual
among farmers but also have a profound impact on the conservation and users Macpherson (2019). The different water rights systems commonly
efficient utilization of water resources. In this paper, we present a practiced may be categorized into three types: Prior appropriation,
This work has been supported partially by NCRA National Agricultural Robotics Lab at LUMS. We also acknowledge the support by Center for Water Informatics
☆
and Technology (WIT), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan.
* Corresponding author at: Center for Water Informatics & Technology (WIT), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan.
E-mail address: [email protected] (W. Hassan).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108443
Received 4 October 2022; Received in revised form 3 July 2023; Accepted 4 July 2023
Available online 13 July 2023
0378-3774/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Riparian rights, and Public rights allocation. Prior appropriation systems allocation mechanisms that use these optimization techniques fail to
consider water as a private property of the existing user base. Any new incorporate a fairness perspective in their quantitative analysis because
user will get water only after the demand of the “senior” users is fulfilled. a system-level optimal water allocation does not guarantee the best
Thus, water is distributed according to the “first in time, first in right” payoff for every user. Effective administration of an allocation mecha
rule with priority assigned according to the time that a user was included nism needs fairness among water users De Loë and Bjornlund (2008).
in the user base Schilling (2018). In case of water scarcity, it is likely that Therefore, we present a demand-based water allocation mechanism that
the “junior” users do not get any share of water. In contrast, the riparian considers fairness and equity measures.
rights system considers water as common property, where every indi Irrigation networks are complex socio-hydrological networks Siva
vidual owning land on the waterfront is entitled to a share of water. The palan et al. (2012). Consequently, the objectives of fair, equitable, and
individual share of water is usually decided on the quantity of land reliable water allocation can not be fulfilled solely through supply-based
owned on the waterfront. In case of water scarcity, users at the tail of the water rights mechanisms or demand-based schemes to meet crop water
streams may not be able to withdraw water as per their demand as users demand Xiao (2017). Thus, instead of a purely supply-based or
at the head of the stream have the advantage of withdrawing more water demand-based mechanism, we propose a scheme that blends both of
Wagner (2018). Finally, in public allocation systems, the water is un these techniques. The mechanism consists of two stages. In the first
derstood to be owned by the state (or any other central agent). The state stage, water is allocated to all users based on a pre-specified water rights
may allocate water rights according to any accepted notion of fairness system. Note that at this point, the water is not yet distributed. The
Wang et al. (2007). However, in such systems, the price of water often initial allocation may result in some users being allocated an amount of
misrepresents the true value of water, which may lead to misallocation water that is more than their demand, i.e., a surplus. In the next stage,
and wastage of valuable water. this combined surplus is then reallocated to those users who had a de
In any water rights system, the allocation mechanism holds special mand higher than their initial entitlements from the first stage. Thus
significance. These mechanisms may be categorized as user-based allo while the first stage promotes equitable water distribution, the second
cation, public allocation, marginal-cost allocation, and water markets stage ensures increased water-use efficiency. Note that in the event of
(the interested reader may refer to (Dinar and Subramanian, 1998; the total water supply being less than the cumulative demand, some
Wang et al., 2003 for details). The categorization reflects the method to rank the users must be employed in the reallocation stage.
decision-making framework employed to determine individual water Hence, the mechanism can be viewed as a demand-driven allocation
shares and the entity that makes those decisions. In public allocation, scheme with the incorporation of an initial entitlement to reflect the
decisions on allocation are made through a centralized public entity, water rights of the users. We thus compare the performance of the
whereas in user-based allocation, the users themselves may make these proposed mechanism against a purely demand driven framework. The
decisions. User-based allocation systems usually exist in smaller regions performance is assessed using a set of metrics that compare water de
with tightly-knit communities and are not practical for large-scale irri mand with water deliveries among farmers. These metrics include
gation systems. On the other hand, in marginal-cost allocation, water is measures of compliance, consistency, reliability, and equity. These
allocated indirectly by setting a price that is equal to the marginal cost of measures have previously been used to measure the performance of
supplying water. A large amount of literature exists on the study of several allocation schemes worldwide (Siddiqi et al., 2018; Molden and
appropriate water pricing schemes. However, the true valuation of Gates, 1990; Kaghazchi et al., 2021.
water is an extremely difficult problem, to say the least. Finally, water In what follows, we present a demand-based allocation scheme that
markets are decentralized frameworks with tradable water rights. These incorporates users’ initial water rights. In the first stage of the proposed
are demand-driven frameworks that overcome many of the shortcom mechanism, the central planner allocates water among users based on
ings that exist in supply-based systems and have been made possible by their initial water entitlement. Water is only allocated and not distrib
recent advances in engineering, data science, and ICT technologies. uted among users at this stage. This stage of the mechanism leads toward
They are commonly portrayed as solutions for water conservation meeting policy objectives related to equity by ensuring the water rights
problems in large-scale irrigation systems Kindler (2010), Brooks of each user. However, many studies suggest that initial water entitle
(2006), Xiao et al. (2018). Moreover, compared to conventional ments often result in inefficient utilization and wastage of surface water
supply-based systems, they do not require heavy infrastructure such as (Zardari and Cordery, 2010; Satoh, 2015; Hennessy, 2004. On the
dams and storages that have significant economic and environmental other-hand, the demand-based surface water allocation ensures optimal
impact. However, as we will discuss below, many issues of inequitable utilization of water based on some selected objectives. Therefore, a
distribution have been observed in regions where such systems have demand-based water allocation scheme is presented in the second stage.
been implemented. It is important to note that the initial allocation from the first stage is
Water markets are widely used for the demand-based management of only adjusted in the second stage if the corresponding users do not
water resources. Market-based mechanisms for water management are require water at that point in time. After adjustment of allocation in the
functional in many regions of the world, e.g., Australia, the United second stage, water is distributed among users. Thus, the first stage of
States, and Chile (AnnWheeler and Garrick, 2020; Endo et al., 2018. the mechanism is to help achieve policy objectives related to equity, and
However, some recent studies indicate that although water markets the second stage is to improve water use efficiency.
improve water-use efficiency, small farmers are at a loss economically In this paper, we demonstrate the working of the rights-preserving
and technologically Bajaj et al. (2022). Another study observes for a allocation scheme through a selected water rights system and demand-
selected water market, farmers selling water for higher payoffs and not based allocation mechanism. Note that the selected rights and alloca
doing agriculture Edwards et al. (2008). The main objective of the tion system are merely illustrative examples, and the proposed scheme
demand-based water allocation schemes is to optimally allocate scarce should not be viewed as being limited to these examples alone. For the
water supply among competing users based on their demand. Therefore, first stage of the mechanism, we determine the initial entitlements via a
several demand-based allocation schemes also use different optimiza Riparian rights system prevalent in the Indus Basin Irrigation System
tion techniques to allocate water optimally. The optimization techniques (IBIS), locally known as warabandi. For the second stage, the realloca
used to find optimal water allocation mechanisms, include dynamic tion is done via a principal-agent (central planner) in an auction-based
optimization (Dai et al., 2018; Jafarzadegan et al., 2014, non-linear market setting. The allocation is done indirectly through a Vickery-
optimization (Yang et al., 2012; Du et al., 2021, genetic algorithms Clarke-Groves (VCG)-based pricing scheme Easley and Kleinberg
(Nicklow et al., 2010; Bi et al., 2015, liner optimization (Azizifard et al., (2010). The VCG mechanism ensures that the users place their bids
2020; Kucukmehmetoglu and Guldmann, 2010, and any mixture of based on true valuations of the required water. Thus, instead of price
these optimization methods (Li et al., 2009; Yao et al., 2021. However, setting through a centralized water valuation entity, the users provide
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
each farmer against the water that they need in excess of the initial
entitlement. We determine this valuation through a second-price auc
tion. The complet. al.ocation process is described in the following text.
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
groundwater at anytime during the interval. In this study, we have Tanaka and Gupta, 2016; Langbort, 2012; Hobbs et al., 2000. It proves
assumed that each farmer has access to an infinite groundwater reser to be an appealing payment calculation mechanism due to its properties
voir. Thus, we assume that the aggregate extraction does not impact the of individual rationality and zero efficiency loss Shoham and
per-unit pumping cost Cg. Next, we discuss the bidding procedure used Leyton-Brown (2008). The function Cn (̂ v n (k), ̂
v − n (k)) represents the
to determine the valuations ̂
v n (k) for the individual farmers. payments to be made by the buyers. To compute these payments, the
central planner calculates P(k) and P− n(k) for each farmer n, where P(k)
2.3. The bidding process = D(k) − E(k)≥ 0 is the water reallocation decision vector, i.e., the
amount of water reallocated to farmers in the time interval k and P− n(k)
At the beginning of the second stage for each interval k, the central is the hypothetical reallocation decision vector. This also denotes the
planner solicits bids from the farmers. The bid for farmer n is repre amount of surface water that would have been reallocated to the other
sented by bn(k), which consists of the price per unit of water at which she farmers, if farmer n had not participated in the reallocation process to
is willing to sell or buy water and the number of units of surface water begin with. The generic expression for VCG payment calculation is as
she needs during time interval k. The willingness to pay for each farmer follows:
depends on her valuation of water during the. Hence, bn(k) is the pair of ( )
(5)
Cn (̂v n (k), ̂v − n (k)) = g Pj,− n (k), ̂
v j (k), dj (k) − g(P(k), ̂v j (k), dj (k)),
water demand and water valuation, i.e., bn (k) = (dn (k), ̂ v n (k)), where
dn(k) is the water demand by farmer n and ̂ v n (k)) is the value of water where the term g(Pj,− n (k), ̂
v j (k), dj (k)) represents the aggregate individ
that farmer n claims for a unit of surface water. Note that the actual ual utilities of all users except buyer and the term g(P(k), ̂ v j (k), dj (k))
valuation vn(k) of a farmer n may be different from the valuation ̂ v n (k)) represents the aggregated individual utilities of all users when the buyer
reported by the farmers to the central agent. The true value of surface is not part of the bidding process. In this study, to aggregate individual
water for farmer depends upon marginal productivity, i.e., profitability utilities we simply add them. Please note that VCG mechansim do not
factors, crop, and production technology, etc. The generic expression for restrict us to use any aggregation procedure. We can aggregate indi
true valuation of water vn(k) for farmer n during time interval k is as vidual preferences using any aggregation procedure. Therefore, we as
follows sume that the central planner calculates the payment for each farmer n
vn (k) = f (β), (3) in the time interval k using the following expression
∑ ∑
Cn (̂v n (k), ̂v − n (k)) = uj (Pj,− n (k), ̂
v j (k), dj (k)) − uj (P(k), ̂
v j (k), dj (k)).
where β represents the marginal productivity. In real-settings, the true j∕
=n j∕
=n
valuation vn(k) of a farmer has been observed to depend upon the water
(6)
demand dn(k)Mallios and Latinopoulos (2001), farm size AnTang et al.
(2013), and pumping cost of groundwater Cg (Knapp et al., 2018; where un(k) represents the utility function for farmer n and is given by
Strosser and Kuper, 1994. The relationship of these variables with true
valuation of surface water is well known Olum et al. (2020). For pur un (Dn (k), vn (k), dn (k)) = vn (k)Dn (k)
poses of comparison in the results section, we assume the true value of +vn (k)(dn (k) − Dn (k)) (7)
water for farmer n during time interval k as
Cg dn (k) where (dn(k) − Dn(k)) represents the demand which was not met
vn (k) = , (4)
An through the surface water supply by the central planner during the time
interval k.
since the farmer may always choose to meet her demand by pumping In 6, payment of a farmer n who receives water during reallocation is
groundwater if the cost for surface water exceeds that of what she incurs calculated by subtracting the social utility of all other farmers in the
by drawing from the aquifer. Next, we describe the VCG procedure that presence of farmer n from the social utilities of all other farmers in the
the central planner employs to calculate the payments for reallocated absence of farmer n. These payments consider the social impact of a
water. These payments may differ from the reported willingness to pay farmer receiving water through reallocation. Thus farmer’s payment
for each farmer. depends upon how much other farmers can increase their utilities if
water received by farmer n was reallocated to other farmers.
2.4. Water payments Seller Price: To compute payments for sellers, the central planner
calculates the net price of reallocated water by dividing the total pay
After deciding on water distribution, the central-agent has to decide ments received from buyers by the total water units reallocated among
how much each buyer, who receives water greater than their entitle farmers. If not reallocated, the water received by farmers greater than
ment, has to pay and how much financial benefit each seller, who uti their demand gets wasted in runoff, and farmers receive no economic
lizes water less than their entitlement and leaves water to get used by benefit for getting water additional to their needs. Sellers are better off
others, will get. To compute the surface water payments, the central by receiving payments greater than zero from the central planner Easley
planner first categorizes the farmers into buyers and sellers by and Kleinberg (2010). Therefore, we assume that the farmers have a
comparing the water allocation decision D(k) with water entitlement E valuation of 0 for each unit of water entitlement which is greater than
(k). Farmers who receive water more than their entitlement, i.e., Dn(k)≥ their demand, i.e., En(k) > dn(k), in the time interval k.
En(k), are categorized as buyers while farmers who receive water less
than their entitlement, i.e., Dn(k)≤ En(k), are categorized as sellers. 3. Measures for performance evaluation
Below, we describe the price-setting process separately for the buyers
and sellers. Here, we present a set of performance indicators for the performance
Buyer Price: To compute surface water payment for buyers, the assessment of the proposed demand-based water allocation mechanism.
Vickrey-Clark-Groves (VCG) mechanism is used Vickrey (1961); Clarke These indicators give socio-hydrological insights into a water allocation
(1971); Groves (1973). The VCG calculates payments so that the buyers and distribution system. Previously, these metrics have been used to
don’t have the incentive to misreport (Varian and Harris, 2014; Nisan assess the performance of several allocation mechanisms worldwide
and Ronen, 2007. Additionally, the VCG ensures fair payments by (Siddiqi et al., 2018; Molden and Gates, 1990; Kaghazchi et al., 2021.
considering the social impact of one buyer on other buyers. The VCG is We define a demand fulfillment ratio αn(k) as a ratio of amount of water
extensively used in other related practical models (Samadi et al., 2012; received D(k) to the water demand d(k). D(k) is the water allocation
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
decision by the central planner. The ratio αn(k) for farmer n in the time 3.2. Farm demand fulfillment reliability
interval k is as follows
Farm demand fulfillment reliability pn is the probability of getting
Dn (k)
αn (k) = . (8) water equivalent to a farm n demand in time interval k. This metric
dn (k)
measures the range in which farmers’ water demands are satisfied
throughout the season. If the water demand of a farm n is fully met
The demand fulfillment ratio αn(k) is zero when a farmer receives no
during each interval k in a cropping season, then pn = 1. Farm demand
water. The αn(k) is between zero and one when the water received by a
fulfillment reliability is calculated as follows
farmer is less than her water demand. αn(k) is equal to one when water
delivered is equivalent to the water demand of the farmer. αn(k) is ∑K
min(1, αn (k))
greater than one when water received is greater than the water demand pn = k=1 . (10)
K
for farmer n in the time interval k.
Here, we explain the key metrics for socio-hydrological analysis, 3.3. Network Reliability
including consistency, compliance, reliability, and equity.
Network reliability NE is the mean reliability of all farms in a
3.1. Farm demand fulfillment consistency watercourse. This metric gives total or aggregate reliability at the
watercourse level. The network reliability is calculated as follows
farm demand fulfillment consistency θn is the coefficient of variation ∑N
of the water received to water demand ratio αn(k). It represents the intra- NR = μ(pn ) = n=1 .
pn
(11)
farm fluctuations of water received to water demand ratio for the farm n N
in a watercourse. It also evaluates whether the water supply is consistent
or not for a farm n in a cropping season. When θn is small, a farm has high 3.4. Farm demand fulfillment compliance
consistency in water received to water demand ratio. For example, if a
farmer receive 90% of its demand, i.e., αn(k) = 0.9, over a season, than Farm demand compliance An is the ratio that represents the total
θn = 0 and water supply is consist ant for farm n. The farm water supplies water demand satisfied for a farm n over a complete cropping season. It
can be compared using the farm demand fulfillment consistency metric. considers the total amount of water supplied but does not account for the
Farm demand fulfillment consistency is calculated as follows timing at which the water was supplied. An quantifies how much the
received amount of water matches the water demand irrespective of the
αn (k) =
σ (αn (k))
. (9) time at which water was received. Farm demand fulfillment compliance
μ(αn (k)) can be calculated as follows
∑K
Dn (k)
An = ∑k=1
K . (12)
k=1 dn (k)
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Fig. 4. The surface water supply each week and the difference in cost borne by
farmers each week of the season when water is allocated using the proposed
mechanism with and without water rights.
Fig. 6. The total difference in groundwater used, the surface water used, and
the cost induced by farmers when water is distributed using the proposed
mechanism with and without water rights.
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Fig. 7. farm demand fulfillment consistency when water is distributed using the mechanism with and without water rights.
Fig. 8. Inter-seasonal variability in farm compliance for the proposed mechanism with and without water rights.
Figure 7 represents farm demand fulfillment consistency θn for all both the mechanism with water rights perform better compared to the
farms in the study region when water is distributed using the proposed mechanism without water rights as consistency is high (θn have small
mechanism with and without water rights. This result indicates that values) for all farmers in the mechanism with water rights. The results
Fig. 9. Farm demand fulfillment reliability when water is distributed using the mechanism with and without water rights.
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Fig. 10. The equity and network reliability for the proposed mechanism with and without water rights.
also indicate that variability within farms is low for both mechanisms, i. reliability point (0 system equity and 1 network reliability) when water
e., farm demand fulfillment consistency is almost the same for all is distributed through the mechanism with water rights compared to the
farmers when water is distributed using the mechanism with and mechanism without water rights.
without water rights, respectively.
5. Discussion and summary
4.4.3. Inter-seasonal variability in farm compliance
To measure each farm’s net surface water deficit, we determine farm In the preceding text, we have presented a novel modified demand-
compliance, i.e., the ratio of total water delivered to total water demand. based water allocation framework that preserves water rights through
We calculate the inter-seasonal variability in farm compliance as shown an initial entitlement-based allocation stage. After the initial allocation,
in Fig. 8. The inter-seasonal variability in farm compliance is low for all the framework reallocates and distributes the surplus water among users
farmers in the study region when water is distributed using the mech based on their demand. While the first stage promotes fairness and eq
anism with water rights compared to the mechanism without water uity among users, the second stage ensures efficient utilization of irri
rights. In the mechanism with water rights, during each time interval, gation water. Another novel aspect of this research is that it presents a
each farm receives water atleast equal to its water entitlement if its water pricing and valuation system based on the users’ valuation of
demand exceeds its entitlement. In the mechanism without water rights, water. The presented pricing and valuation mechanism is a second-price
farmers may not get the surface water if the water available is less than auction system that is known to guarantee truthful valuation on behalf
the total demand of the farmers and their willingness to pay is small of the bidders both in theory and in practical settings. This mechanism
compared to other farmers. Therefore, the variability in compliance is ensures a fair pricing scheme by taking into account the social impact of
less in the mechanism with water rights compared to the mechanism a single user on other users, and it has not been considered for water
without water rights. resource management problems prior to this study. The performance of
the allocation mechanism has been assessed from different socio-
4.4.4. Farm demand fulfillment reliability hydrological and economic perspectives. Although in this paper, the
The farm demand fulfillment reliability pn when water is distributed performance of the proposed allocation scheme has been evaluated
using the mechanism with and without water rights is given in Fig. 9. against a particular region in the IBIS, the framework is general and can
Farm demand fulfillment reliability is higher when water is distributed be tailored according to the local needs for implementation in other
using the mechanism with water rights than without water rights. In the regions and countries as well.
mechanism with water rights, during each time interval, each farm re Our results demonstrate that the incorporation of water rights in the
ceives water atleast equal to its water entitlement if its demand exceeds allocation framework leads toward a more equitable distribution of
its entitlement. In the mechanism without water rights, farmers may not water without significantly impacting water utilization. It is important
get the surface water, if water available is less than the total demand of to note here that while our results have been demonstrated for a selected
the farmers and its willingness to pay is small compared to other allocation scheme, the same framework is relevant for other real-world
farmers. The variability in demand fulfillment reliability among farms is allocation schemes as well. Thus, the derived conclusions are also
low, which shows that each mechanism is consistent in terms of applicable to other allocation frameworks that may be a blend of
reliability. different water rights systems and demand-based appropriation philos
ophies. This is evident from the observations drawn in studies of many
4.4.5. Network reliability and system equity real-world systems. For instance Hipel et al. (2013) and Xiao et al.
For the last comparison, we plot network reliability and system eq (2016) report instances where the incorporation of water rights in
uity as shown in Fig. 10. For perfect system performance, the system’s standard demand-based mechanisms has led to improved equity and
trajectory should lean towards the point where equity is 0 and reliability water-use efficiency. In another work, Hamm et al. (2013) observes that
is 1 in Fig. 10. These results indicate that the performance of the fairness and justice in water regulation systems lead towards increased
mechanism with water rights is high compared to the mechanism compliance of users. As shown in the previous section, our results also
without water rights. The results in Fig. 10 show that the system’s tra demonstrate improvement in compliance with the incorporation of
jectory for reliability and equity tends towards the perfect equity and water rights in the demand-based mechanism. Further in line with our
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W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Table A1
Rotational Roster along the watercourse 91,093/L which ensure water rights of the each farmer in the study area Hassan et al. (2021). This table is retrieved from the
study area irrigation authority office.
Farm Number Area Number Area (acre) Irrigation time (Hr) Draining time (Hr) Filling time (Hr) Net allotted time (Hr) Initial Timing Final Timing
results, similar effects have also been observed for consistency in In the simulation section of our study, we have used the proportional
real-world studies (see the work by GhaffariMoghadam et al. (2022). rule to allocate initial water rights among users in the first stage of the
A noticeable aspect from the results of our performance evaluation is proposed scheme. This rule of initial water allocation is not water effi
the improvement in reliability. Reliability depends heavily on the total cient, despite being used in large irrigation systems like the Indus basin
supply of water. Since the assumed water supply in both mechanisms has irrigation system (Freebairn and Quiggin, 2006; Goesch and Hanna,
been kept the same in all simulations, the observed increase in reliability 2002; Gómez-Limón et al., 2020; Lefebvre et al., 2012; Co-Operation,
may appear to be counter-intuitive at first. Here, we wish to emphasize 2015. Note that the selected rights allocation system is merely an
that the increase in reliability does not reflect an increase in supply but illustrative example, and the proposed scheme should not be viewed as
instead stems from its relation to the Demand fulfillment ratio αn(k). being limited to these examples alone. It is important to point out that
While the purely demand-based mechanism results in an allocation such there are multiple ways to allocate initial water rights, and priority
that the value of αn(k) for any user is either 1 or 0 (except for one rights are one of them. Recent studies suggest that this is one of the
partially fulfilled user), the rights-preserving allocation mechanism en efficient ways to allocate initial water rights (Goetz et al., 2017;
sures that there is no user with a value of 0 for αn(k). This may result in Gómez-Limón et al., 2021; Gutiérrez-Martín et al., 2022; Martinez and
some users with very low demand being serviced by virtue of their water Esteban, 2014. Therefore, allocating initial water rights with priority
rights, who otherwise would not have been serviced in the purely rights in the first stage of our proposed scheme could be an exciting
demand-based mechanism. Thus, many users obtain a high value of direction for future research. However, allocating initial water rights
αn(k) in the proposed scheme, as compared to the purely demand-based using any of the water rights allocation schemes would not change our
one, which ultimately results in the observed increase in reliability. study results.
Similar results have also been observed in some real-world cases, for A promising direction of future research relates to the space of Equity
instance, by Afshar et al. (2015), Zeng et al. (2015), Zeng et al. (2016), and Reliability shown in Fig. 10. Based on the supply of water and the
Zeng et al. (2015) and Schwabe et al. (2020), where similar in allocation scheme that is employed, any irrigation system will operate at
terventions resulted in water allocation with improved reliability. a single point in this space. Ideally, the planner would want the system
Previously, we have argued that a desirable feature of the rights- to operate as close to the perfect Reliability and Equity point as possible.
preserving framework is that it increases equity in distribution The structure of the simulated point clouds for the two different allo
without decreasing the overall utilization of surface water. This is cation mechanisms suggests that the allocation plays a critical role in
evident from our results, where it can be observed that utilization re determining the worst-case performance. The span of the cloud for the
mains the same across the mechanisms with and without water rights. mechanism with water rights lies in a more desirable region of the
This is in contrast to purely supply-based mechanisms, which are known performance space as compared to the mechanism without water rights.
to result in inefficient utilization of water. In our proposed framework, Furthermore, the shape of the cloud suggests that Reliability and Equity
however, this inefficiency is dealt with by the demand-based realloca are not independent of one another but are constrained via the water
tion stage. Any allocated quantity of surface water that exceeds that allocation mechanism that is employed. Further research on the per
particular user’s demand is reallocated in this stage to another user formance limits of different allocation frameworks in the Equity-
whose demand is yet to be fulfilled. In this way, any wastage of surface Reliability space can greatly benefit policy-makers while making de
water is avoided in a manner similar to a purely demand-based mech cisions regarding water allocation in real-world irrigation systems.
anism. Therefore, the proposed framework is able to obtain an increase
in equity without a corresponding decrease in utilization. Note that we Declaration of Competing Interest
disregard the various inefficiencies and losses that may be introduced in
the distribution stage. Indeed, these inefficiencies will exist regardless of The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
whatever allocation mechanism is used and must be dealt with interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
separately. the work reported in this paper.
10
W. Hassan et al. Agricultural Water Management 287 (2023) 108443
Data Availability Hassan, W., Manzoor, T., Jaleel, H., Muhammad, A., 2021. Demand-based water
allocation in irrigation systems using mechanism design: a case study from pakistan.
Agric. Water Manag. 256, 107075.
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