Outdoor Water Use as an Adaptation Problem: Insights from North American Cities

Gober, Patricia; Quay, Ray; Larson, Kelli L.

doi:10.1007/s11269-015-1205-6

Cited by 38 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…From this, we suggest that the observed urban adaptability, and particularly the flexibility in seasonal water use (Gober et al 2016), in the face of drought represents a watershed-scale adaptive mechanism that reduces intersectoral conflict over water resources in the case of the PRW. However, the adaptability of domestic water use has hard limits, as evidenced by the Lower Elkhorn NRD's decision to curtail groundwater irrigation after domestic wells started drying up during the 2012 drought.…”

Section: Synthesis and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Socio-environmental drought response in a mixed urban-agricultural setting: synthesizing biophysical and governance responses in the Platte River Watershed, Nebraska, USA

Zipper¹,

Smith²,

Breyer³

et al. 2017

E&S

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Section: Synthesis and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Socio-environmental drought response in a mixed urban-agricultural setting: synthesizing biophysical and governance responses in the Platte River Watershed, Nebraska, USA

Zipper¹,

Smith²,

Breyer³

et al. 2017

E&S

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“…Residential use makes up on average 60% of municipal, publicly supplied water (Dieter et al 2018). Outdoor water use is a component of municipal water use that is particularly sensitive to weather and climate (Gober et al 2016). Outdoor water use is a component of municipal water use that is particularly sensitive to weather and climate (Gober et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outdoor water use can account for 22%-65% of annual residential use (DeOreo et al 2016), and includes landscape irrigation, swimming pools, and car washing. Outdoor water use is a component of municipal water use that is particularly sensitive to weather and climate (Gober et al 2016). Depending on the fraction of municipal use that is used outdoors, as well as other potentially weather-sensitive uses of municipal water such as commercial or institutional outdoor irrigation and water used in heating and cooling, municipal water use is affected to varying degrees by weather.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Seasonal Response of Municipal Water Use to Weather across the Contiguous U.S.

Opalinski

Bhaskar

Manning

2019

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Weather variability has the potential to influence municipal water use, particularly in dry regions such as the western United States (U.S.). Outdoor water use can account for more than half of annual household water use and may be particularly responsive to weather, but little is known about how the expected magnitude of these responses varies across the U.S. This nationwide study identified the response of municipal water use to monthly weather (i.e., temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration [ET]) using monthly water deliveries for 229 cities in the contiguous U.S. Using city‐specific multiple regression and region‐specific models with city fixed effects, we investigated what portion of the variability in municipal water use was explained by weather across cities, and also estimated responses to weather across seasons and climate regions. Our findings indicated municipal water use was generally well‐explained by weather, with median adjusted R2 ranging from 63% to 95% across climate regions. Weather was more predictive of water use in dry climates compared to wet, and temperature had more explanatory power than precipitation or ET. In response to a 1°C increase in monthly maximum temperature, municipal water use was shown to increase by 3.2% and 3.9% in dry cities in winter and summer, respectively, with smaller changes in wet cities. Quantifying these responses allows urban water managers to plan for weather‐driven variability in water use.

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“…Residential outdoor demand (D outdoor ) is determined by areal distribution of statistical end-user habits. These are the flow rate, duration and frequency of outdoor water use in private gardens [41]. Decisive parameters are the number of households and the ratio of vegetation within the urbanised area.…”

Section: End Use Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual Urban Water Balance Model for Water Policy Testing: An Approach for Large Scale Investigation

et al. 2018

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Urban water management will face various challenges in the future. Growing population in cities, changing climatic conditions and uncertain availability of water resources necessitate forward-looking water policy strategies. In this paper, we introduce a new water balance model to evaluate urban water strategies at a city scale. The aim is to evaluate decentralised water management measures within a large-scale investigation and to reduce external potable water demand. The upscaling process of local information (water demand, areal data) to a conceptual model approach is described. The modelling approach requires simplification of detailed processes to enable the execution with limited computing capacity. The model was applied to Greater Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, a highly sprawled city with nearly four million inhabitants. Scenario analysis demonstrated the impact of using different water resources of different quality classes, the extensive implementation of water saving appliances and decentralised water storage strategies on the city's water balance. Results indicate a potential reduction of potable water demand of up to 25% with a conservative rainwater reuse and, even 60% with widespread implementation of rain-and greywater recycling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that even small systems implemented at a local level can have noticeable effects when operated as clustered schemes.

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Outdoor Water Use as an Adaptation Problem: Insights from North American Cities

Cited by 38 publications

References 47 publications

Socio-environmental drought response in a mixed urban-agricultural setting: synthesizing biophysical and governance responses in the Platte River Watershed, Nebraska, USA

Socio-environmental drought response in a mixed urban-agricultural setting: synthesizing biophysical and governance responses in the Platte River Watershed, Nebraska, USA

Spatial and Seasonal Response of Municipal Water Use to Weather across the Contiguous U.S.

Conceptual Urban Water Balance Model for Water Policy Testing: An Approach for Large Scale Investigation

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