An Operational Model for Utilizing Water Resources of Varying Qualities in an Agricultural Enterprise
Abstract
The work considers the problem of determining an optimal operational plan in order to maximize the profits of an agricultural enterprise. A decision model is formulated considering a set of potential crops for planting on an available area of land, two sources of water supply of different qualities and limited capacities, and a production function for each crop using water quantity and quality as the input factors. A unique feature of the model concerns the nature of the production function, which measures the profit margin of a crop not only in terms of its yield, but also the quality of the products. The model was developed to assist local decision makers in the Negev Desert (Israel) for the purpose of soliciting a preferred policy for water sources development. The developed model may be applicable for other regions with similar water shortage problems.
References
Asano, T., Richard, D., Crites, R.W., and Tchobanoglous G. (1992) Evolution of tertiary treatment requirements in California. Water Environment and Technology, 4:36-41.
Bazaraa, M.S., and Shetty, C.M. (1979) Nonlinear Programming-Theory and Algorithm. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Brimberg, J., Oron, G., and Mehrez, A. (1994) Economic development of ground water sources in arid zoes with applications to the Negev desert. Management Science, 40:353-363.
Brimberg,J" Oron, G. and Mehrez, A. (1995) An integrated model for the development of marginal water sources in the Negev Desert. European Journal of Operations Research, 82:35-49.
Crook, J, and Suramalli, R.Y. (1995) Water reclamation and reuse criteria. In: U.S. Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse, Crete, Greece, pp. 1011-1023.
Feitelson, E. (1996) Water and Land in Israel: From Strategic Resources to Scarce Commodities. In: Gradus, Y. and Lipshitz, G. (eds.) The Mosaic of Israeli Geography. Beer-Sheva: Ben Gurion University Press, pp. 37-44.
Horst, R. and Tuy, H., (1991) Global Optimisation: Deterministic Approaches. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
Issar A. and Adar, E. (1992) Integrated use of marginal water resources in arid and semi-arid zones. Water Quality Bulletin, 13:126-132.
Lyon, R.M. and Farrow, S. (1995) An economic analysis of clean water act issues. Water Resources Research, 31:213-233.
Oron, G. (1993) Recycling drainage water in San Joaquin Valley, California. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, ASCE, 119:265-285.
Oron, G. (1995) Water resources management in arid zones. Journal of Arid Land Studies, 5,S:287-290.
Oron, G. and Enthoven, G. (1987) Stochastic considerations in optimal design of a microcatchment layout of runoff water harvesting. Water Resources Research, 23:1131-1138.
Oron, G., Mehrez, A. and Brimberg, J. (1996) Optimizing multiple source variable quality water use. International Water and Irrigation Review, 16:39--47.
Oron, G., Mehrez, A. and Rabinowitz, G. (1991) Forecasting in optimizing a dual system for energy generation and irrigation. Water Resources Planning and Management Journal, ASCE, 117:287-300.
Pasternak, D. and DeMalach, Y. (1987) Saline water irrigation in the Negev desert. Paper presented at the regional conference on Agriculture and Food Production in the Middle East. Athens, Greece, Jan. 21-26, 1987.
Rabinowitz, G., Mehrez, A. and Oron, G. (1988a) A nonlinear optimization model of water allocation for hydroelectric energy production and irrigation. Management Science, 34:973-990.
Rabinowitz, G., Mehrez, A., and Ravivi M. (1988b) An economic evaluation model of investment alternatives in water supply systems, case study: Hazbani-Dan system. Interface, 1-13.
Rabinowitz, G., Mehrez, A. and Rabina, A. (1992) A nonlinear heuristic short-term model (STM) for hydroelectric production: The case of the Hazbani-Dan water system. Management Science, 38:419-438.
- The contributor(s) (authors) warrant that the entire work is original and unpublished; it is submitted only to this Journal and all text, data, figures/tables or other illustrations included in this work are completely original and unpublished, and these have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere in any form or media whatsoever.
- The contributor(s) warrant that the work contains no unlawful or libelous statements and opinions and liable materials of any kind whatsoever, does not infringe on any copyrights, intellectual property rights, personal rights or rights of any kind of others, nor contains any plagiarized, fraudulent, improperly attributed materials, instructions, procedures, information or ideas that might cause any harm, damage, injury, losses or costs of any kind to person or property.
- The contributor(s) retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- Geography Research Forum may disseminate the content of the publications and publications’ Meta data in text, image, or other print and electronic formats to providers of research databases (e.g. EBSCO, GeoBase, JSTOR) to facilitate publications' exposure.
