Sustainable water management in the southwestern United States: reality or rhetoric?

ABSTRACT:

Background

While freshwater sustainability is generally defined as the provisioning of water for both people and the environment, in practice it is largely focused only on supplying water to furnish human population growth. Symptomatic of this is the state of Arizona, where rapid growth outside of the metropolitan Phoenix-Tucson corridor relies on the same groundwater that supplies year-round flow in rivers. Using Arizona as a case study, we present the first study in the southwestern United States that evaluates the potential impact of future population growth and water demand on streamflow depletion across multiple watersheds.

Methodology/principal findings

We modeled population growth and water demand through 2050 and used four scenarios to explore the potential effects o

SUBMITTER: Marshall RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2908145 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature