We, the editors, have long believed that a strong knowledge of relatively simple economic and engineering concepts is valuable in solving water management problems. The lack of such knowledge has been apparent to us in some of the journal articles, research proposals and books we have reviewed. The articles which have been written concerning specific local water economies and management issues are scattered over a wide variety of journals, making them hard to access. Most of the extensive water resources literature is concerned with large regional water projects or with narrow technical and...