Cities across the US Southwest have invested heavily in water conservation to cope with shortages on the Colorado River Basin. As droughts become more intense and frequent in this region, however, there is uncertainty in the continued success of these demand-side management techniques. In this talk, I will discuss a recent publication that used agent-based modeling to investigate the efficacy of hypothetical demand management policies on water availability across three major Western US cities (Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix) under climate change. The results demonstrate that long-term shifts in water conservation attitudes can reduce demand under moderate climate futures. However, those gains are lost under more extreme warming. The results suggest that while demand management remains important, additional strategies will be essential for maintaining reliable urban water supplies.
Speaker
Dr. Renee Obringer
Research Fellow, Urban and Interdependent Infrastructure Systems
