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The Effectiveness of Urban Irrigation Day Restrictions in California

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  • Hanna Hayden

    (Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Kansas, USA)

  • Tsvetan Tsvetanov

    (Department of Economics, University of Kansas, Kansas, USA)

Abstract

We analyze the impact of restricting outdoor irrigation using monthly data from 408 urban water suppliers in California during the final years of the 2012–2017 drought. Our estimates suggest that assigning an additional no-irrigation day per week leads to a decrease in average monthly residential water consumption by approximately 0.8 gallons per capita-day. There is substantial heterogeneity in this impact. First, the marginal effect of a stricter irrigation policy varies depending on the existing level of outdoor watering restrictions — while initial restrictions lead to considerable conservation gains, tightening these measures further does not bring additional gains unless 6 weekly no-irrigation days are implemented. Furthermore, the policy is more effective in areas where residential water use represents a larger share of total urban water consumption and areas which perform better at reaching the 25% state conservation target.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanna Hayden & Tsvetan Tsvetanov, 2019. "The Effectiveness of Urban Irrigation Day Restrictions in California," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-29, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wepxxx:v:05:y:2019:i:03:n:s2382624x19500012
    DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X19500012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Binz, Christian & Harris-Lovett, Sasha & Kiparsky, Michael & Sedlak, David L. & Truffer, Bernhard, 2016. "The thorny road to technology legitimation — Institutional work for potable water reuse in California," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 249-263.
    2. Brennan, Donna C. & Tapsuwan, Sorada & Ingram, Gordon, 2007. "The welfare costs of urban outdoor water restrictions," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 51(3), pages 1-19.
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    5. Hanemann, W. Michael & Nauges, Celine, 2005. "Heterogeneous Responses to Water Conservation Programs: The Case of Residential Users in Los Angeles," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt1s43k3fd, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
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    Cited by:

    1. West, Jeremy & Fairlie, Robert W & Pratt, Bryan & Rose, Liam, 2021. "Automated Enforcement of Irrigation Regulations and Social Pressure for Water Conservation," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt2bq5f1zq, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    2. Jeremy West & Robert W. Fairlie & Bryan Pratt & Liam Rose, 2021. "Automated Enforcement of Irrigation Regulations and Social Pressure for Water Conservation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(6), pages 1179-1207.

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