IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i8p2292-d223425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Multivariate Indices of Water Use Potential for the Continental United States

Author

Listed:
  • Jonah D. White

    (Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

  • Elizabeth A. Mack

    (Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

  • Sharon L. Harlan

    (Department of Health Sciences and Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA)

  • E. Scott Krayenhoff

    (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Matei Georgescu

    (School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA)

  • Kyle Redican

    (Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

Abstract

The necessity of freshwater for sustaining human life has prompted the development of numerous estimation techniques and metrics for understanding where, when, and why water is used. While estimates are valuable, techniques for estimating water use vary, and may be difficult to replicate and/or unavailable on an annual basis or at the regional scale. To address these drawbacks, this paper proposes a series of regional indices for the continental United States that could serve as proxies for water use that are based on key variables associated with water use. Regional indices at the county level are computed, compared against each other, and compared to water withdrawal estimates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). These comparisons highlight differences amongst the derived indices and the water withdrawal estimates. They also demonstrate promise for future development and implementation of related indices, given their similarities with water withdrawal estimates. Using only a small set of variables, these indices achieve some degree of similarity (~20%) to estimates of water withdrawals. The comparative data availability and ease of estimating these indices, as well as the ability to decompose the additive indices into their constituent use categories and constituent variables, renders them practically useful to water managers and other decision makers for identification of locally specific drivers of water use and implementation of more geographically-appropriate policies to manage scarce water resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonah D. White & Elizabeth A. Mack & Sharon L. Harlan & E. Scott Krayenhoff & Matei Georgescu & Kyle Redican, 2019. "Regional Multivariate Indices of Water Use Potential for the Continental United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:8:p:2292-:d:223425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2292/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2292/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grafton, R. Quentin & Kompas, Tom & To, Hang & Ward, Michael B., 2009. "Residential Water Consumption: A Cross Country Analysis," Research Reports 94823, Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub.
    2. Deepak K. Ray & James S. Gerber & Graham K. MacDonald & Paul C. West, 2015. "Climate variation explains a third of global crop yield variability," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-9, May.
    3. Georgia Destouni & Fernando Jaramillo & Carmen Prieto, 2013. "Hydroclimatic shifts driven by human water use for food and energy production," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(3), pages 213-217, March.
    4. Graeme Dandy & Tin Nguyen & Carolyn Davies, 1997. "Estimating Residential Water Demand in the Presence of Free Allowances," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(1), pages 125-139.
    5. E. Scott Krayenhoff & Mohamed Moustaoui & Ashley M. Broadbent & Vishesh Gupta & Matei Georgescu, 2018. "Diurnal interaction between urban expansion, climate change and adaptation in US cities," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(12), pages 1097-1103, December.
    6. Edward Feser & Stuart Sweeney & Henry Renski, 2005. "A Descriptive Analysis of Discrete U.S. Industrial Complexes," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 395-419, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mónica Maldonado-Devis & Vicent Almenar-Llongo, 2021. "A Panel Data Estimation of Domestic Water Demand with IRT Tariff Structure: The Case of the City of Valencia (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, January.
    2. David Hoyos & Alaitz Artabe, 2017. "Regional Differences in the Price Elasticity of Residential Water Demand in Spain," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(3), pages 847-865, February.
    3. Cao, Juan & Zhang, Zhao & Tao, Fulu & Chen, Yi & Luo, Xiangzhong & Xie, Jun, 2023. "Forecasting global crop yields based on El Nino Southern Oscillation early signals," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    4. Jeetendra Prakash Aryal & Tek B. Sapkota & Ritika Khurana & Arun Khatri-Chhetri & Dil Bahadur Rahut & M. L. Jat, 2020. "Climate change and agriculture in South Asia: adaptation options in smallholder production systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5045-5075, August.
    5. Rosa Carbonell-Bojollo & Oscar Veroz-Gonzalez & Rafaela Ordoñez-Fernandez & Manuel Moreno-Garcia & Gottlieb Basch & Amir Kassam & Miguel A. Repullo-Ruiberriz de Torres & Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez, 2019. "The Effect of Conservation Agriculture and Environmental Factors on CO 2 Emissions in a Rainfed Crop Rotation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-19, July.
    6. Jianshi Zhao & Zhongjing Wang & Daoxi Wang & Dangxian Wang, 2009. "Evaluation of Economic and Hydrologic Impacts of Unified Water Flow Regulation in the Yellow River Basin," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 23(7), pages 1387-1401, May.
    7. Janie M. Chermak & Kate Krause & David S. Brookshire & H. Stu Burness, 2013. "Moving Forward By Looking Back: Comparing Laboratory Results With Ex Ante Market Data," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 1035-1049, January.
    8. Arbues, Fernando & Garcia-Valinas, Maria Angeles & Martinez-Espineira, Roberto, 2003. "Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 81-102, March.
    9. Michael O'Donnell & Robert P. Berrens, 2018. "Understanding Falling Municipal Water Demand in a Small City Dependent on the Declining Ogallala Aquifer: Case Study of Clovis, New Mexico," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-40, October.
    10. Younes Ben Zaied & Marie Estelle Binet, 2015. "Modelling seasonality in residential water demand: the case of Tunisia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(19), pages 1983-1996, April.
    11. Pires, Jose Claudio Linhares & Cravo, Tulio & Lodato, Simon & Piza, Caio, 2013. "Industrial Clusters and Economic Performance in Brazil," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4771, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. Mark Hoffman & Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2005. "Modelling residential water demand with fixed volumetric charging in a large urban municipality: The case of Brisbane, Australia," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 196, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    13. Zhao, Xin & Calvin, Katherine & Patel, Pralit & Abigail, Snyder & Wise, Marshall & Waldhoff, Stephanie & Hejazi, Mohamad & Edmonds, James, 2021. "Impacts of interannual climate and biophysical variability on global agriculture markets," Conference papers 333245, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    14. Qiang Wang & Yuanfan Li & Rongrong Li, 2024. "Rethinking the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis across 214 countries: the impacts of 12 economic, institutional, technological, resource, and social factors," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Smith, Tom & McKnight, Brent, 2016. "Environmental finance: A research agenda for interdisciplinary finance research," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 124-130.
    16. Duyen Nhat Lam Tran & Tien Dinh Nguyen & Thuy Thu Pham & Roberto F. Rañola & Thinh An Nguyen, 2021. "Improving Irrigation Water Use Efficiency of Robusta Coffee ( Coffea canephora ) Production in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Janusz Prusiński & Radosław Nowicki, 2020. "Effect of planting density and row spacing on the yielding of soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill)," Plant, Soil and Environment, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 66(12), pages 616-623.
    18. Katrin Millock & Céline Nauges, 2010. "Household Adoption of Water-Efficient Equipment: The Role of Socio-Economic Factors, Environmental Attitudes and Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(4), pages 539-565, August.
    19. Shahzad, Muhammad Faisal & Abdulai, Awudu, 2020. "Adaptation to extreme weather conditions and farm performance in rural Pakistan," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    20. Kiran B Krishnamurthy, Chandra & Kriström, Bengt, 2013. "A cross-country analysis of residential electricity demand in 11 OECD-countries," CERE Working Papers 2013:5, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics, revised 30 Jun 2014.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:8:p:2292-:d:223425. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.