Water Use Trends in the United States (original) (raw)
Related papers
An Analysis of the Water Situation in the United States: 1989-2040
Several Federal agencies have historically had responsibilities for conducting assessments of the Nation's water resources. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service (SCS), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its predecessor agencies, among others, have conducted studies assessing the current situation and future prospects for water in particular regions of the country. Responsibility for national water assessments was assigned to the U.S. Water Resources Council (WRC) by the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965. With the demise of the WRC in 1981, several member agencies have attempted to take over parts of the WRC role and improve their own analyses. USGS began to publish an annual National Water Summary in 1984. The first three annual reports, Water-Supply Paper 2250 (USGS 1984), 2275 (USGS 1985), and 2300 (USGS 1986), have been used extensively in the preparation of this Asse...
Water demand, supply, and quality in the United States: sustainability of water uses
International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 2007
The purpose of this paper is to develop, from a very wide variety of public data, a synthesis of the status of water supply, demand, and quality for the United States from 1985 to the present, in an effort to obtain a dynamic baseline for assessing the sustainability of multiple water uses. Although the United States has relatively ample supplies of water, it is likely that deficits will occur in areas with increasing population and economic development. Variations in population, industrial, and agricultural production are driven by internal and external factors among which water probably causes the largest disruptions because of the inability to adapt to those changes. Climate changes due to global and regional warming trends also have major impacts on water availability and quality, although they are less sudden than structural changes in the economy. To help frame a baseline from which those changes can be measured to assess its sustainability for the population of the United States, we summarize the most salient findings about the status of US water supply, demand, and quality at the level of the water resource regions, and states over a period of approximately 20 years. Our synthesis of the data collected by the US agencies indicates that water quality is improving and the supply of water for the United States is generally good. However, shortages of water predicted from linear extrapolations of past trends, appear principally to affect the western water resource regions. Using US Census Bureau 'high population' forecasts, water shortages may be felt earlier and in more water resource regions than previously expected. These conclusions implicitly take into account changes in the US economy during the mid-eighties but do not account for: regional-scale climate, legal low-flow requirements, or other non-routine occurrences.
Recent U.S. Geological Survey water-use report suggests that increasing water-use efficiency could mitigate the supply-and-demand imbalance arising from changing climate and growing population. However, this rich data have neither analyzed to understand the underlying patterns, nor have been investigated to identify the factors contributing to this increased efficiency. A national-scale synthesis of public supply withdrawals ("withdrawals") reveals a strong North-south gradient in public supply water use with the increasing population in the South contributing to increased withdrawal. Contrastingly, a reverse South-north gradient exists in per capita withdrawals ("efficiency"), with northern states consistently improving the efficiency, while the southern states' efficiency declined. Our analyses of spatial patterns of per capita withdrawals further demonstrate that urban counties exhibit improved efficiency over rural counties. Improved efficiency is also demonstrated over high-income and well-educated counties. Given the potential implications of the findings in developing long-term water conservation measures (i.e., increasing block rates), we argue the need for frequent updates, perhaps monthly to annual, of water-use data for identifying effective strategies that control the water-use efficiency in various geographic settings under a changing climate.
Evaluation of the Sustainability of Water Withdrawals in the United States, 1995 to 20251
Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 2005
To evaluate the long term sustainability of water withdrawals in the United States, a county level analysis of the availability of renewable water resources was conducted, and the magnitudes of human withdrawals from surface water and ground water sources and the stored water requirements during the warmest months of the year were evaluated. Estimates of growth in population and electricity generation were then used to estimate the change in withdrawals assuming that the rates of water use either remain at their current levels (the business as usual scenario) or that they exhibit improvements in efficiency at the same rate as observed over 1975 to 1995 (the improved efficiency scenario). The estimates show several areas, notably the Southwest and major metropolitan areas throughout the United States, as being likely to have significant new storage requirements with the business-as-usual scenario, under the condition of average water availability. These new requirements could be substantially eliminated under the improved efficiency scenario, thus indicating the importance of water use efficiency in meeting future requirements. The national assessment identified regions of potential water sustainability concern; these regions can be the subject of more targeted data collection and analyses in the future.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2010
Persistent changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have dramatic effects on the availability of surface water for natural vegetation, streamflow, agricultural production, and human consumption. We use a combination of historical observational climate data and water budget equations to develop time-series and maps of twentiethcentury water variables within the contiguous United States and compare these with anticipated twenty-firstcentury patterns projected by global climate models. The results graphically demonstrate regional variation in hydroclimatic trends: areas that experienced convergent actual (AET) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) rates during the twentieth century (such as the Great Lakes and Gulf South) witnessed long-term increases in available moisture, whereas areas with divergent rates (such as the Mid-Atlantic and Great Plains) had greater water deficits. Increasing temperatures through the twenty-first century will produce higher PET across the United States; areas where AET similarly escalates will maintain average moisture levels within twentieth-century ranges, but where AET does not correspondingly increase, as in much of the South and West, average conditions will be comparable to those of extreme twentieth-century droughts. The findings highlight the importance of a regional approach to environmental change, as the impacts of climate on water in the United States will be spatially uneven.
Environmental science & technology, 2018
The United States (US) energy system is a large water user, but the nature of that use is poorly understood. To support resource comanagement and fill this noted gap in the literature, this work presents detailed estimates for US-based water consumption and withdrawals for the US energy system as of 2014, including both intensity values and the first known estimate of total water consumption and withdrawal by the US energy system. We address 126 unit processes, many of which are new additions to the literature, differentiated among 17 fuel cycles, five life cycle stages, three water source categories, and four levels of water quality. Overall coverage is about 99% of commercially traded US primary energy consumption with detailed energy flows by unit process. Energy-related water consumption, or water removed from its source and not directly returned, accounts for about 10% of both total and freshwater US water consumption. Major consumers include biofuels (via irrigation), oil (via...
HighâResolution Water Footprints of Production of the United States
Water Resources Research
The United States is the largest producer of goods and services in the world. Rainfall, surface water supplies, and groundwater aquifers represent a fundamental input to economic production. Despite the importance of water resources to economic activity, we do not have consistent information on water use for specific locations and economic sectors. A national, spatially detailed database of water use by sector would provide insight into U.S. utilization and dependence on water resources for economic production. To this end, we calculate the water footprint of over 500 food, energy, mining, services, and manufacturing industries and goods produced in the United States. To do this, we employ a data intensive approach that integrates water footprint and input-output techniques into a novel methodological framework. This approach enables us to present the most detailed and comprehensive water footprint analysis of any country to date. This study broadly contributes to our understanding of water in the U.S. economy, enables supply chain managers to assess direct and indirect water dependencies, and provides opportunities to reduce water use through benchmarking. In fact, we find that 94% of U.S. industries could reduce their total water footprint more by sourcing from more water-efficient suppliers in their supply chain than they could by converting their own operations to be more water-efficient. Water resources within the United States are projected to be increasingly stressed in the coming decades (Devineni et al., 2015). Growing and shifting populations, economic growth, expansion of the energy sector, and warming temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and shrinking snowpack due to climate change will alter water supplies and demands (Devineni et al., 2015). These issues are particularly concerning in the American Southwest, which is already water stressed and expected to face greater water scarcity in the coming decades (Schewe et al., 2014). Furthermore, increasing water allocations to meet environmental requirements could further strain existing water uses (Marston & Cai, 2016). It is essential to understand how water resources are currently being used in order to better evaluate how future water availability and demand will impact economic production activities. Water use in the United States is heterogeneous, decentralized, and often politically contentious. This makes it challenging to meter water withdrawals and measure water consumption in a consistent way nationwide. Additionally, there are privacy concerns that prohibit government agencies from reporting some water Key Points: We present the most detailed and comprehensive water footprints of production of any country to date Significant variability is evident in water footprints of production between locations and economic sectors Sourcing from water-efficient suppliers (indirect use) reduces water footprints more than changes to direct use
Past and future water use in Pacific Coast states
2003
We examine socioeconomic factors affecting water demand and expected trends in these factors. Based on these trends, we identify past, current, and projected withdrawal of surface water for various uses in Pacific Coast States (California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington), including public, domestic, commercial, industrial, thermoelectric, livestock, and irrigation. Additionally, we identify projected demands for nonconsumptive instream recreational uses of water, such as boating, swimming, and fishing, which can compete with consumptive uses. Allocating limited water resources across multiple users will present water resource managers and policymakers with distinct challenges as water demands increase. To illustrate these challenges, we present a case study of issues in the Klamath Basin of northern California and southern Oregon. The case study provides an example of the issues involved in allocating scarce water among diverse users and uses, and the difficulties policymakers face when attempting to design water allocation policies that require tradeoffs among economic, ecological, and societal values.
Progress toward establishing a national assessment of water availability and use
U.S. Geological Survey circular, 2013
Many reports have recognized the need for a National Water Census (Water Census) for the United States, and have called upon the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to undertake this challenge. The United States Congress, in Subtitle F of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law (P.L.) 111-11), established a "blueprint" for a national assessment of water availability and use that outlines the information needed from a Water Census. This report, "Progress Toward Establishing a National Assessment of Water Availability and Use," describes the initial steps taken by the USGS to institute a Water Census and the progress the USGS has made toward establishing such a Census. It explains, for both Congress and the public, the steps the USGS will take to fulfill the requirements of Subtitle F of P.L. 111-11, and describes plans for the future of the Water Census. This report presents the history and background of and the need for a Water Census. It describes the initial steps taken toward accomplishing the Water Census, which is designed to systematically provide information that will allow resource managers to assess the water availability of the Nation. The report explains how the Water Census is being organized around the unifying theme of a water budget, and explains why water budgets are critical for assessing water availability for the Nation. The report describes the importance of understanding, assessing, and delivering information about the uncertainty of water-availability information, as well as the collaboration and coordination with other agencies and organizations that is essential for the Water Census to succeed. The report explains the planned regional framework for presenting water-availability data through a set of geographic focus area studies and the planned national framework for providing uniform information on water-budget components across the country through topical area studies. The report also explains how the USGS will incorporate water-quality information into the water-availability analysis. Finally, the report describes the information management and delivery activities that are necessary for the goals of the Water Census to be achieved. v