Rachna Tewari

Management of Declining Groundwater Resources and the Role of Policy Planning in Semi-Arid Economies: The Case of Texas High Plains

Recent decades have witnessed the expansion of irrigated agriculture in some of the most productive semi-arid economies in the world, such as the Texas High Plains. Interest in groundwater management continues to increase due to the excessive depletion of groundwater, which is the primary source of fresh water supply in these economies that critically depend on irrigated agriculture. In addition, the uncertainties posed through extreme climatic events such as drought exacerbate the challenge of managing this scarce yet vital resource. This chapter describes the problem of declining groundwater resources in a semi-arid economy exemplified by the Texas High Plains, discusses the management approach of water use restriction to handle the ever increasing demand for agricultural production with a limited supply in hand, and outlines the role of policy planning in groundwater management. For a semi-arid economy such as the Texas High Plains that is largely dependent on groundwater resources, an effective partnership between groundwater management bodies and local producers is an important step in planning towards the long term objective of ensuring adequate groundwater availability in the future.

Global Warming Perception and Willingness to pay for Environment in High Carbon Emitting Nations

Public perception to global warming is considered an important factor that influences environmental legislation as well as policies in different countries and regions. This study attempts to analyze the understanding of this issue among citizens in high CO2 emitting nations in light of the perception of the seriousness of the problem. Individual level survey data for each country of study was analyzed as to how explanatory variables like social, demographic, and macro-economic explain the differences in the response variable for each country of study, using a contingent ranking and ordered-probit regression approach. The results of the study indicated that all macro variables showed a significant impact on the perception of citizens regarding the concern for global warming, while significant differences existed among the countries of study for the impact of demographic, social, political, and religious variables on the perception of seriousness of global warming as an environmental concern.