Colorado River Basin

Background & Objectives

U.S. Geological Services (USGS) describes The Colorado River as “…about 1,450 miles long, with headwaters in Colorado and Wyoming, [it] eventually flows across the international border into Mexico. The drainage basin area of about 246,000 square miles includes all of Arizona, and parts of California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The Colorado River is an important water resource for areas outside of the Basin, including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and San Diego for public (municipal) supply, and the Imperial Valley in California for agricultural water supplies. The River and its tributaries provide water to the nearly 30 million people, both within and outside of the Basin and irrigates nearly 4 million acres of agricultural lands.”

The Colorado River Compact of 1922 and its subsequent agreements and court decrees regulate the use and management of the Colorado River among the seven basin states, Native American Tribes, and Mexico. Nevertheless, the legal water rights for consumptive use exceed the actual water flowing in the River and that gap is widening each year with prolonged incidents of severe climate change-induced droughts in the Basin.

Water leaders and policymakers, as well as Federal Government officials, are facing unprecedented challenges now and in coming months as a wide array of natural and human forces combine to dramatically alter the Basin’s future. The crucial issue is how to efficiently allocate extremely scarce (and growing in scarcity due to climate change) water to competing water needs (for instance, farming vs. urban and industrial) while satisfying all the Colorado River Basin stakeholders and the environment.

Our research team is proposing a Hydro-Economic Model that maximizes basin welfare subject to institutional, physical, and technical constraints as well as external shocks (climate change, commodity prices, population increase). Through this research, we expect to find out (i) climate change affects water allocation between the stakeholders, (ii) how water trading changes the allocation scheme between the stakeholders, (iii) what economic incentives are required to encourage Upper and Lower Basin states to conserve water and participate in interstate markets, and (iv) whether more efficient allocation can be implemented under the current legal arrangements or a basin-wide reform is required.

Colorado River Basin Team

Please click on the picture of each team member for their bio& contact information.

Mehdi Nemati, Ph.D.

Dr. Mehdi Nemati is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy at the School of Public Policy, University of California, Riverside. With a strong focus on applied econometric methods and big data analysis, Dr. Nemati’s policy-oriented research centered around economic issues associated with water management. He actively collaborates with government agencies and industry leaders in California and beyond to tackle pressing water policy challenges. Dr. Nemati earned his Ph.D. and master’s in agricultural economics from the University of Kentucky. He currently leads the Water Dialogue lab at UC Riverside.

Ariel Dinar, Ph.D.

Ariel Dinar is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy at the School of Public Policy, University of California, Riverside. His work addresses various aspects of economic and strategic behavior associated with the management of natural resources and the environment. Dr. Dinar received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Dinar is an International Fellow of the Center for Agricultural Economic Research of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel since November 2010; a Fulbright Senior Specialist since 2003; and was named a 2015 Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Daniel Crespo

Daniel Crespo (Zaragoza, 1983) is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Zaragoza in the Department of Economic Analysis. He completed an MSc degree in Economics and a degree in Economics from the University of Zaragoza. He has a PhD scholarship at the Department of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria, CITA-Government of Aragon. He is interested in investigating environmental and natural resources economics, environmental and agricultural policies, water modeling and optimization, water management, water scarcity and droughts, and climate change.

Daniel Crespo's research is focused on upstream-downstream conflicts, integration of ecosystems health and environmental benefits in water management, and the analysis of the reliability of water systems in the face of more frequent, longer-lasting, and more intense drought events.

Zachary Frankel

Zachary Frankel is the founder and Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council. Zach started the organization in 1995 after he received his B.S. in Biology at the University of Utah in biochemistry and genetics. Zach has been working on water education and conservation across the American West for over 25 years. He successfully led a campaign to stop a 257 foot high proposed dam on the Diamond Fork River in 1997 and authored Utah’s first water conservation law, the Utah Water Conservation Plan Act, which was passed in 1998 by the Utah State Legislature. Zach also wrote legislation passed by the Utah Legislature in 2002 that amended the Bear River Development Act by removing two proposed dams from being constructed on the Bear River. Zach is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys paddling, hiking, backcountry skiing and cycling.

Nick Halberg

Nick Halberg is a Research and Policy Analyst at the Utah Rivers Council. His role is to research various scientific topics associated with water policy—from hydrology to economics—and translate those findings into understandable and implementable policy actions inside the Colorado River Basin. Nick graduated magna cum laude from the University of Utah, where he received an honors BS in economics and a BS in philosophy of science. While in school, Nick worked as a print editor for an outdoor-focused magazine and covered natural resource management issues inside Utah.