| In low flow years, surface water in the South Saskatchewan River Basin is increasingly becoming economically scarce. Historical solutions to water scarcity issues are limited and hence basin planners are interested in developing and reviewing alternate water management institutions.;In this thesis, a non-linear programming model is developed to allocate scarce water resources among spatially separate regions in a manner which maximizes social welfare while observing essential institutional and hydrologic structures. Non-linear demands, transformation processes, alternate hydrologic regimes, and the conceptual framework of the model distinguish this work from previous research.;The base case, which uses long-term mean flows, shows that potential trade gains exist, but the percentage gains are not too large. Sensitivity cases demonstrate that base case results are fairly robust to plausible changes in key assumptions such as crop prices, demand price elasticities, hydropower demand, and choke prices; however, the choice of hydrologic regime has a substantial influence on potential trade gains. Administered pricing cases show that basin planners could implement policies to protect the irrigation sector without substantially eroding system welfare. |
