Groundwater Management Competitive Solutions: The Relevance of the Gisser-Sanchez Model

The main subject of this chapter is related to the relevance of the Gisser-Sanchez effect in groundwater. It is important to point out that groundwater resources provide a primary source of irrigation water throughout much of the world. Two main questions need to be indicated when taking water extractions into account. The first has to do with water scarcity in local watersheds or whole basins created by excessive surface and groundwater withdrawals. The other is related to water degradation and the pollution loads leading to many tracts of rivers and whole aquifers being spoiled and losing their capacity to sustain ecosystem functioning and human activities. These conclusions were called into question by the Gisser and Sanchez analysis. These authors argue that the difference in producer surplus between the open access and optimally managed cases was numerically insignificant for large aquifers subject to inelastic water demand. Perhaps the most interesting point in the work by Gisser and Sanchez is multidisciplinarity.