Full Description

Water conservation is a way of life for the residents of San Diego, California. Located in a semi-arid region, the city is growing rapidly, and imports about 90% of its water from northern California and the Colorado River. In 1991, the city signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Urban Water Conservation in Southern California. Signatories are expected to implement a set of water conservation programs in their service areas to alleviate water supply problems. San Diego had an urban water conservation management and conservation plan that contained many of the concepts codified in the memorandum, including residential water audits and conservation pricing. Inclining block rates have been in effect for the residential sector since 1983. During the sixth year of drought in 1992, the city decided to implement the residential water audit component of its conservation plan. According to best management practices, water utilities must perform indoor/outdoor audits on the top 20% of residential water users in their service area. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California supported the research reported in this paper. It examines in depth whether water savings can be achieved and maintained in practice at a reasonable cost. The paper concludes that future audit programs can be made more cost-effective by targeting residences with large turf areas, residences with automatic sprinklers, and residences with high occupancy rates.

Product Details

Published: 01/01/1994 ISBN(s): 0898677734 Number of Pages: 13File Size: 1 file , 660 KB