Martin Russenberger,Henning Bjornlund,Wei Xu, University of Lethbridge, Economics, henning.bjornlund@uleth.ca
There is increased demand in semiarid regions of the world for water reallocation to adapt to uncertain future water supply and increased demand for water for urban uses and the environment. Since agriculture accounts for 80% of water use in many such regions, it is inevitable that reallocation will move water out of agriculture. As irrigation is a major creator of jobs and economic activity in such regions, this can have significant socioeconomic impact. To minimize this impact tax revenue will often be used to assist the process. Hence it is important for policy makers to understand how the urban electorates perceive that such reallocation should take place since it has most of the electoral power and provides the biggest contribution to tax revenue. This paper explores this issue based on extensive surveys of urban dwellers in cities and towns across the urban to rural spectrum in Alberta, Canada.
Keywords: water reallocation; policy preferences; Alberta, Canada