Evaluating water management strategies with the Systems Impact Assessment Model: SIAM version 3

Product Type: Open-file Report

Year: 2003

Author(s): Bartholow, J., J. Heasley, B. Hanna, J. Sandelin, M. Flug, S. Campbell, J. Henriksen, and A. Douglas

Suggested Citation:
Bartholow, J., J. Heasley, B. Hanna, J. Sandelin, M. Flug, S. Campbell, J. Henriksen, and A. Douglas. 2003. Evaluating water management strategies with the Systems Impact Assessment Model: SIAM version 3: U.S. Geological Survey USGS Open-File Report 2003-82. 126 p.

Abstract

Water from many of California’s coastal rivers has been used for a wide variety of development ventures, including major agricultural diversions, hydropower generation, and contaminant assimilation from industry, agriculture and logging. Anthropogenic impacts often degrade water quality and decrease the quantity and quality of aquatic habitat. Reallocating streamflow away from uses that degrade water quality to uses that foster higher water quality is a critical step in restoring riverine habitat and the anadromous fish that rely on that habitat for a portion of their life cycle. Reallocation always brings with it the need to examine the economic efficiency of the proposed changes. If the dollar benefits of improving water quality are greater than the costs, the criterion of improving economic efficiency is satisfied, a fact that can be highly persuasive to decision makers contemplating reallocation…