Discussion of “Design and evaluation of irrigation water pricing policies for enhanced water use efficiency” by Sayed Ali Ohab-Yazdi1 and Azadeh Ahmadi

Today’s agriculture in many parts of the developing world suffers from utter shortages in irrigated and rain-fed agriculture (Falkenmark and Rockström 2006). Such conditions call for a shift from current planning and management of water resources as exemplified in various studies that include reservoir operation (Ahmadi et al. 2014; Bolouri-Yazdeli et al. 2014), groundwater resources (Bozorg-Haddad et al. 2013; Fallah-Mehdipour et al. 2013b), conjunctive use operation (Fallah-Mehdipour et al. 2013a), water project management (Orouji et al. 2014), qualitative management of water resources systems (Orouji et al. 2013; Shokri et al. 2014), and water distribution systems (Seifollahi-Aghmiuni et al. 2013; Soltanjalili et al. 2013; Beygi et al. 2014). Applying economic measures such as marginal-cost water pricing and other water-management tools in water resources has shown promising results (Rogers et al. 2002; Ward and Pulido-Velazquez 2008). Yet, as the authors of the original paper wrote, most efforts aimed at water supply management have neglected the potential advantages of water demand management.

Water resources management