Cost Benefit Analysis for a Novel Groundwater Recharge Incentive Structure
Michael Kiparsky, Director, Wheeler Water Institute
Center for Law, Energy and the Environment
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
Our team has co-developed a novel incentive structure that can encourage landowners to infiltrate water into the ground. We hope to work with a URAP student to advance the functionality of an existing cost-benefit analysis (CBA) tool that helps evaluate the potential for such projects. The ultimate outcome is the wider adoption and use of a new method that can help to address the global groundwater crisis in basins in California and around the world.
Role: Potential tasks include:
running different financial scenarios through the CBA tool
building a graphical user interface for the tool
researching economic concepts that pertain to CBA for water management
working with a larger team of interdisciplinary researchers to make the tool more generalizable.
Qualifications: Desired skills for a URAP student include versatility with Python, interest in water management and groundwater recharge, and familiarity with economics.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Molly Bruce, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: https://wheeler.berkeley.edu
Social Sciences Environmental Issues