Settlement, Growth, and Water Security for Southwest Cities - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 456

FIGURE 26.11
Endangered silvery minnow. (Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)

One manner that has been used to alleviate the water demand was in the conversion of
agricultural water right to urban use, which has has resulted in a net gain of water for the
city, as residential water use is less intensive than that of agricultural crop production.
Conserving water is an issue that is of critical concern for southwestern cities. Each area
has met this concern with policies and programs that have had varying degrees of success.
In 2002, Western Water Advocates published a study of urban water use of western cities. 10
Although this study is now over 10 years old, this study provided a useful comparative
analysis of water usage between southwestern cities in regard to water planning, usage,
and conservation measures. Figure 26.12 shows a comparison of southwestern cities and

300

250

200

150 Year

1994

100

2001

50

0

FIGURE 26.12
Changes in single family residential per capita water consumption 1994-2001.