THE OPTIMAL STEADY‐STATE IN GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT

Groundwater use is likely to be inefficient in the absence of regulation and hence there is substantial interest in optimal groundwater withdrawals over time. Under an optimal regime withdrawals, pumping lifts, and profits converge to steady‐state levels. In this paper we show that optimal steady‐state lifts, withdrawals, and marginal user costs can be readily calculated for multi‐cell models of confined aquifers. Applications to the design of economically efficient groundwater management policies are discussed, comparisons to previous work and to the safe yield concept are made, and an illustrative example is given.