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Smart growth and water conservation

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 29, 2007 at 7:23 am

Here’s an article from Tapan Munroe in the Contra Costa County Times about California’s projected population growth and how water conservation can be integrated into that growth:

It is no surprise to any of us that California has a huge water problem. We are right now in the midst of one the driest years in more than a decade, and there is a hint of panic in the air. Policy wonks are proposing billions of dollars worth of public works schemes that include more dams, more canals and more water infrastructure. Although many of these projects may be necessary, we really ought to focus one more time on the age-old strategy that we know does work: conservation.

Let us just consider the problems associated with rising water demand relating to housing growth in California and see how conservation combined with “smart growth” helps.

Ellen Hanak and Matthew Davis, in a recent study published by the Public Policy Institute of California, foresee large increases in urban water demand in California in the coming years as the state population grows by nearly 11 million residents in the next quarter-century. Nearly half of this growth is expected to be in hotter, inland regions of the state.

A substantial part of the increase in water demand will be for outdoors uses because, amazingly enough, half of residential water uses are for landscape enhancement. Our beloved manicured lawns and gardens suck up at least as much water as our five-minute hot showers, the silent dishwasher and the super clothes washer.

As most of the growth will be in hotter Central Valley, residential water consumption will be higher. The problem will be further exacerbated in these places because they will have more single-family homes with larger lots, more “ranchettes” with one- to 20-acre lots. That means a whole lot more landscape-related water use than we have seen in the past.

So how does “smart growth” and conservation help in alleviating a significant part of California’s water problem?

To read the rest of this article from the Contra Costa County Times, click here.

Munroe, an international economist, writes a bi-weekly column for the Contra Costa County Times. Here is a link to his previous column on the global water disparity, and here is a link to an archive of his newspaper columns.

July 29, 2007 · Filed Under Development & Water

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