Evaluating Emerging Markets for Environmental Flows: Lessons from Policy Reform and Implementation Experience in the Columbia Basin

The talk will highlight policy lessons from an institutional evaluation of market-based approaches to environmental water recovery in the Pacific Northwest. The study examined the transaction costs (resources required to define, transfer, and manage water rights) of environmental water transfers in the Columbia Basin with a focus on the design and performance of water rights and watershed governance institutions.  The presentation will consider implications for Arizona’s water policy context and will sketch future research plans in Australia to place the findings in a comparative perspective.