Economic Principles for
Sound Water Planning
An Introduction for Regional Water
Planning Groups in Texas
Our mission:
Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including the right to clean
air, clean water, healthy food and flourishing ecosystems. Guided by science, we work to create practical solutions
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©2003 Environmental Defense. Printed on recycled paper.
Authors
Mark MacLeod
Director, Special Projects
Environmental Defense
Elta Smith
PhD. Candidate
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
The authors would like to thank the following individuals for producing a series of technical
papers from which much of the report was derived:
• Dr. Charles W. Howe, Professor of Economics and Director, Environment and
Behavior Program, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder;
• Dr. Ari Michelsen, Resident Director of the El Paso Research and Extension Center,
Texas A&M University, El Paso;
• Dr. Milton Holloway, President, Resource Economics, Inc., Austin, Texas;
• Dr. Ron Lacewell, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Associate Director, Texas
Agriculture Experiment Station, Texas A&M University;
• Dr. Ron Kaiser, Professor of the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism
Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station;
• Dr. David B. Willis, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Texas
Tech University, Lubbock;
• Dr. Richard L. Kiesling, Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Austin, Texas.
We are grateful for funding from the Houston Endowment Inc., the Meadows Foundation and
the Brown Foundation Inc. in making this report possible, and to Elaine Smith and Colin
Rowan of Environmental Defense for their assistance with the production of this report.
All recommendations, opinions expressed