Maintenance and Dissemination of a Water Transfer Data Base for 12 Western States, 1987-2008

The project involves collaborate work between Gary Libecap and a graduate student, Zachary Donohew, to compile and maintain a comprehensive, publiclyavailable data set on water transfers and water markets for researchers and policy analysts. The data are drawn from the Water Strategist for 12 western states (Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas) from January 1987-December 2008. There are 4,175 observations of water transfers that include amount of water, contract type (short-term lease, long-term lease, and sale), parties involved, origination use, destination use, and price (2,728 observations). The methodology is described and data categories are presented in a Word document along with an excel file of the trades placed on the Bren School Website and linked to the Bren website at http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/news/water_transfers.htm and the WRRC website at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/WRC/research_sp.html.