Colorado Basin Incentive‐Based Urban Water Policies: Review and Evaluation

Abstract

Major cities located in the Colorado River Basin (CRB) rely on incentive‐based policies to address water use and supply reliability challenges, through programs provided by cities themselves, by state and federal agencies, and by NGOs. This review examines water use trends across cities, the phenomena of declining per capita use, and finds that most large cities have adopted municipal rate structures designed to incentivize lower use. A number of urban areas provide incentives to use gray water and effluent for outdoor use and to harvest rainwater. Incentive‐based programs to protect watershed health have become a water supply strategy implemented through programs and partnerships across the CRB. The paper concludes by reviewing the ways that incentive‐based urban water policies are being evaluated, and by providing guidelines for designing and evaluating programs to reduce urban use and protect watersheds that provide urban supplies.

Featured Collection introduction: Severe sustained drought revisited managing the Colorado River system in times of water shortage 25 years later—Part II

“…The call for papers for the JAWRA Featured Collection: Severe Sustained Drought Revisited: Managing the Colorado River System in Times of Water Shortage 25 Years Later led to more insights than could fit into a single issue. This second set of articles highlights the work done by Salehabadi et al (2022) on three historically based drought scenarios, McCoy et al (2022) on explaining seven climate‐related extreme events of greatest interest to water managers, Colby and Hansen (2022) on urban water demand management and policies for improving water supply reliability, Garcia‐Hernandez et al (2022) on water quality in the Colorado River Delta, and Ayres et al (2022) on economic losses from reducing inflows into the Salton Sea. These papers, alongside the first set of articles (see overview in Frisvold et al, 2022), continue to illustrate the range of challenges and the expertise applied to them in thoughtful, innovative, and multi‐disciplinary ways.…”

“…Colby and Hansen (2022) also review different economic methods to evaluate such programs. Methods include benefit–cost analysis, cost‐effectiveness analysis, return on investment studies, and contingent valuation studies.…”

“…The article by Colby and Hansen (2022) considers trends in urban water demand in Colorado River Basin (CRB) cities (Albuquerque, Cheyenne, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, and Tucson) and examines different incentive‐based policies to manage water demand and supply reliability. They note that in the original SSD, policies to reduce urban water use or to protect forests and watersheds to improve water supply reliability were either in their infancy or non‐existent.…”