The University of Lethbridge is a leader in the areas of water research, and it's not only the Alberta Water and Environmental Sciences Building at the forefront of discovery.

The Department of Economics also studies topics related to water resource. Thursday, the Department of Economics Seminar Series features Willamette University professor, Donald H. Negri, as he presents, Water and Land Allocations in Federally Financed Water Supply Districts.

For more than two decades water resource economists have been heralding the increasing scarcity of water, particularly in the American west. Urban growth, environmental and recreational water values, and Native American water claims have all contributed to substantially increasing the demands for water. Over the same period, opportunities for large-scale expansion of water supplies to meet the emerging demand have faded, and multi-year droughts have occurred in several large regions. Inevitably, increasing demands and static supplies have intensified competition, provoked crises and, in some instances, produced hostile confrontation and violence. And all indications are that the future holds much of the same.

Without the prospect of supplemental supplies, conflicting demands for existing supplies must be met through conservation and reallocation. Since agriculture consumes the lion's share of freshwater resources, addressing water crises and resolving conflicting demands will inevitably curtail agriculture's share. This research is concerned with the impact of reduced water allocations on agricultural lands. How will this affect agricultural production and land use? This presentation will address these questions through the application of economic modeling, empirical estimation and policy simulation.

The seminar takes place Thursday, Sept. 24 at 12:15 p.m. in room E690.