Water Auction Design for Supply Reliability: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

This guidebook is part of an ongoing series intended to assist public agencies, non-profit organizations, and the private sector with design and implementation of water acquisition programs to improve water supply reliability during drought and under climate change. While this guidebook addresses the use of auctions, others being developed will discuss water supply reliability contracts, regional water banks and other topics responsive to stakeholder interests in innovative acquisition programs. Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments: We acknowledge former and current faculty researchers and graduate research assistants on the University of Arizona Enhancing Water Supply Reliability research project for their contributions over the years of the project. We thank the Bureau of Reclamation for its generous support and interest, and staff in the Lower Colorado Regional Office for ongoing dialogue on water acquisitions program needs and objectives. This guidebook was also supported by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sector Applications Research Program (SARP) grant. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the research team and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, US Department of Commerce, or the US Government Climate Program. We acknowledge support provided through the US Department of Agriculture’s Multistate Research Project, W2190, "Water Policy and Management Challenges in the West. We thank Dr. Rosalind Bark for her valuable feedback on this document. We also thank Tom Harbour from the Central Arizona Project, Margot Selig from the Bureau of Reclamation and Jennifer Pitt from the Environmental Defense Center for their instructive comments.