Drought Mitigation: Water Conservation Tools for Short-Term and Permanent Water Savings

2017 ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Amy L. Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Water Conservation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Water Savings ◽  
Drought Mitigation

Counting Fish: Environmental Benefits Calculation for Avoided Costs Analysis in Urban Water Use Efficiency Planning

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Shulte Joung ◽  
Mary Ann Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Water Conservation ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Environmental Benefit ◽  
Conservation Programs ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Water Savings ◽  
Urban Water Use ◽  
Use Efficiency

This report documents a project undertaken for the California Urban Water Conservation Council to create a method to calculate water utility avoided costs and assign economic value to the environmental benefits of raw water savings as a result of implementing urban water conservation programs. It is assumed that water savings associated with implementation of conservation programs can be quantified and represented as a reduction in the demand for water from a particular set of supply sources. This demand reduction may in turn result in a change to the availability of an environmental benefit provided by that source. Environmental valuation, as it is applied here, is relatively new and there are numerous complications, ambiguities, data gaps and differences of opinion in the application of the methodology. For that reason, this report should be considered a pioneering effort to put together all the required elements in a single coherent framework.

scholarly journals Promoting Water Conservation: Where to from here?

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Moglia ◽  
Stephen Cook ◽  
Sorada Tapsuwan
Keyword(s):  
Water Conservation ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Smart Metering ◽  
Conservation Behavior ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Conservation Programs ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
International Water ◽  
Per Capita

This paper reports on a review of international water conservation efforts, but with a particular focus on the Australian context. The aim is to take stock of the current understanding of water conservation, in particular: what influences people’s decision to conserve water, what influences whether people persist with water conservation behavior and what contributes to awareness and familiarity of water conservation behaviors. We also explore how all these factors jointly can achieve water savings over time, and the efficacy of past efforts to save water. Subsequently, this is used to identify where leading practice for managing water conservation is heading, which we argue is the application of recent developments in behavioral science and advances in smart metering to personalize water conservation programs. To support individualized water conservation efforts, we need more longitudinal studies of water conservation behavior, a greater focus on behavioral science, as well as the development of modelling tools that embed insights and lessons of this research into decision support capability. This can help to develop the capacity to better implement water conservation programs that respond to short-term water scarcity crises, such as droughts, while also providing persistent reductions in per-capita water demand that can help meet strategic water planning needs, such as deferring or downsizing capital investment in supply infrastructure to accommodate demands associated with population growth.

The effects of conservation messaging on retail water deliveries

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hollis
Keyword(s):  
Water Conservation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Outreach ◽  
Water Savings ◽  
Water District

In 2014 the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California spent $5.5 million on a large scale public outreach campaign designed to foster public awareness about the California drought and to promote water conservation. This paper estimates the water savings associated with that effort.

Physiological effects of short-term water deprivation in the South American sigmodontine rice rat Oligoryzomys nigripes and water rat Nectomys squamipes within a phylogenetic context

2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (8) ◽  
pp. 1326-1335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martim de França Silveira Ribeiro ◽  
Pedro Luiz Bernardo da Rocha ◽  
Lys Angela Favaroni Mendes ◽  
Steven Franklin Perry ◽  
Elisabeth Spinelli de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Deprivation ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Physiological Adaptation ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Evaporative Water ◽  
Semi Arid

Ancestrally, oryzomyine rodents have a sylvan habit, but some species have colonized the semi-arid Brazilian Caatinga. Therefore, the clade provides a suitable model for studying adaptation to such environments within a phylogenetic framework. We investigated physiological responses to short-term water deprivation in two oryzomyine rodents kept in captivity. Oligoryzomys nigripes (Olfers, 1818), a small-bodied rodent, occupies the Caatinga, whereas Nectomys squamipes (Brants, 1827), which is larger and semi-aquatic, lives in moist habitats outside this region. Measurements were also carried out in three additional related species of intermediate body size. Neither O. nigripes nor N. squamipes displays exceptional ability to conserve water, and this condition appears to be plesiomorphic for the clade. The results for O. nigripes, such as the great absolute water intake and the high ratio of water ingested to urine voided, probably derive from allometric specializations correlated with its small body size and greater evaporative water loss. In N. squamipes, low urine osmolality and a reduction of food intake during water deprivation may be related to its semi-aquatic lifestyle. Therefore, the Oryzomyini exemplify Neotropical rodents that can occupy semi-arid environments with no remarkable physiological adaptation for water conservation.

Irrigation water demand and implications for water pricing policy in rural China

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
QIUQIONG HUANG ◽  
SCOTT ROZELLE ◽  
RICHARD HOWITT ◽  
JINXIA WANG ◽  
JIKUN HUANG
Keyword(s):  
Water Conservation ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Water Pricing ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Water Savings ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Irrigation Water Demand ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACTThe goal of this paper is to analyze whether reforming groundwater pricing has the potential to encourage water conservation and assess its impacts on crop production and producer income in rural China. Household-level water demands are estimated so that adjustments at both the intensive and extensive margins are captured. The results show that a large gap exists between the cost of water and the value of water to producers. Simulation analysis shows that reforming water pricing can induce water savings. However, the price of water needs to be raised to a relatively high level. We also find that the value-based policy is more effective than the cost-based policy since it generates larger water savings, given the same increase in the average price of water. While raising the price of water negatively affects crop production and crop income, higher water prices do not adversely affect the distribution of household income.

scholarly journals Repository Africa in the Evolving “Chinese Century”: The Uneven Sino-Nigerian Water Conservation Partnership

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-52
Author(s):  
Adebusuyi Isaac Adeniran
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
International Development ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Development Practice

Although extant reconstruction of the limits of international development practice has been implicated in the budding involvement of China in Africa, debates on China's actual intents and prospects have continued to rage. Engaging an exploratory design and a political-ecology approach, which affirms the significance of human factors in contextualising, structuring, and contesting the natural world, this study assesses specific short-term and long-term outcomes of China's Gansu-modelled water conservation project in Kano, Nigeria. The shared ecological interface between China and Nigeria has facilitated transfer of relevant technology to the Guinea and Sahel regions in Northern Nigeria. Chinese involvement in the Nigerian water/agricultural sector has resulted in improved indigenous farmers’ skills, yields, and incomes. Sustaining the trend of ongoing intervention would imply a significant boost to Nigeria's drive towards self-reliance, though a long-term cleavage towards such Chinese interventions might eventually imply neo-dependency.

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