Water efficiency achievable throughout U.S. without decrease in economic activity

Date:
August 26, 2020
Source:
Northern Arizona University
Summary:
Researchers have looked at how much water conservation can readily
and affordably be achieved in each region and industry by looking
at what conservation measures were already working and considering
how much water is being used.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A recent study co-authored by two Northern Arizona University researchers showed that targeted efforts to increase water efficiency could save
enough water annually to fill Lake Mead. It could happen without
significantly compromising economic production, jobs or tax revenue.


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The study, published today in Environmental Research Letters, demonstrates
that there is no one right answer to increase water efficiency -- rather,
there are dozens of right answers depending on region, industry and
company. Ben Ruddell, the director of the FEWSION Project and director
of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS)
and Richard Rushforth, an assistant research professor in SICCS, are
co-authors on the study. Landon Marston, an assistant professor of civil
and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, led the study.

"What's unique about this study is that we try to answer the question
of how much water conservation can readily and affordably be achieved
in each region and industry of the United States by looking at the
conservation that has already been achieved by the water conservation
leaders in each industry and region," Ruddell said.

The study looked at how much water conservation can readily and affordably
be achieved in each region and industry of the United States by looking at
what conservation measures were already working and considering how much
water is being used in every industry and throughout the country. Then
the researchers ran statistics on that information, looking for areas
that offer greater efficiency. The method controls for the differences
in climate and technologies in different industries and states.

The study demonstrates how water users from farmers to manufacturers
to service providers can collectively reduce their water consumption,
both in their own processes and upstream throughout their supply chain,
to reduce overexploitation of surface water and groundwater resources. It builds on earlier research evaluating potential water savings within the agricultural sector and in cities, applying a novel approach to water
savings in the whole economy.

"The scope and detail of our study are unparalleled, and we believe this
work will make a significant and timely contribution to the debate on
how to conserve water while maintaining, or even increasing, economic activity," Marston said. "We find that some of the most water-stressed
areas throughout the U.S. West and South have the greatest potential
for water savings, with about half of these water savings obtained
by improving water productivity in the production of corn, cotton and
alfalfa." The research argues that streamflow depletion throughout the
West can be decreased on average by 6.6 percent to 23.5 percent without significantly reducing economic production or increasing costs. That
is the other piece in this problem -- that significant water savings
can happen without significant harm to the economy. The majority of
U.S. industries and regions can make the biggest contributions to water conservation by working with suppliers to reduce water use "upstream"
in their supply chain; some large companies are already adopting this
supply chain sustainability.

In the Southwest, which has a sizable agricultural industry as well as perennial water scarcity issues, the conversation about conservation
has included ways to improve water use efficiency among farmers
since the 1980s, but the study found that more improvement is readily achievable. The good news is that improvement is possible.

Although the study did not argue for specific conservation measures
and water saving policies, it does offer a number of high-level recommendations. These included partnerships between large manufacturers, retailers and large metropolitan areas that are "downstream" in the water supply chain, which have more money and influence in making changes,
and the large water users "upstream" to help organize and fund water conservation.

"This study argues that we can solve a large fraction of the U.S. water
supply crisis simply by employing water conservation strategies that
are already in routine use by the water productivity leaders in every
industry and every region of the U.S.A.," Ruddell said. "We don't need
a revolution in laws or technologies, or much more money, to achieve
this. In the 21st century, water conservation has the potential to
affordably boost and protect our national water supply in a big way, and
avoid the need for hundreds of billions of dollars in taxing and spending
on new water infrastructure to cope with drought and climate change."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Northern_Arizona_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Landon T Marston, Gambhir Lamsal, Zachary H Ancona, Peter Caldwell,
Brian
D Richter, Benjamin L Ruddell, Richard R Rushforth, Kyle Frankel
Davis.

Reducing water scarcity by improving water productivity in the
United States. Environmental Research Letters, 2020; 15 (9):
094033 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab9d39 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826175646.htm

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