California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum

Promoting Excellence and Consensus in Water and Environmental Modeling

This workshop presents various alternatives for modeling the economics of water use and water scarcity within an agricultural production setting, with a particular focus on California.  This 6-hour workshop at UC Davis is intended to bring experts and interested water resources professionals from academia, industry and government agencies to talk and learn about various models and optimization tools that have been used to evaluate the economics surrounding agricultural water use in California, Australia, Chile, and Mexico.  Applications using both mathematical programming and hedonic models will be presented.  A discussion about modeling needs and future applications for the California water modeling community will be encouraged.

The first half of the workshop will provide an introduction to land and water use in California’s agricultural production using positive mathematical programming (PMP) models such as the Statewide Agricultural Production Model, SWAP.  Connectivity with larger models of water resources management such as CALSIM, CALVIN and WEAP will be discussed.  The second half of the workshop will present applications along with a hands-on exercise using PMP models in a MS Excel spreadsheet.  A presentation of further model development and opportunities for collaboration will close the workshop.  A laptop computer with MS Excel installed is required.

Major topics:

• Overview of California crop agricultural production and water use
• Use of PMP models of land and water use in agricultural production
• Use of hedonic models to investigate water supply issues
• Interfacing PMP agricultural production models with other water resources models
• Modeling drought, climate change and yield response to water quality
• Hands-on modeling exercise using PMP
• Future directions