Effects of Urban Development Patterns on Municipal Water Shortage

Abstract

While urban areas are being threatened by water shortage due to climate change and rapid population growth, effects of urban development patterns on future municipal water shortage are rarely investigated. We address this aspect of urbanization by assessing the impacts of sprawl vs. high-density patterns on future changes in the sub-annual water shortage intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) relationships. The City of Fort Collins, Colorado, water supply system is chosen as a representative region that is rapidly developing over the last decades. The future water supply is estimated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) driven with a hot-dry climate model from the statistically downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, phase 5 (CMIP5) projections. Future water demand is projected using the Integrated Urban Water Model (IUWM) under both sprawl and high-density development patterns. The demonstration study reveals that urban areas under the sprawl development pattern are likely to experience water shortage events with higher intensity, duration, and frequency compared to the high-density pattern. Characterizing impacts of urban development patterns on future water shortage conditions is required for sustainable water management and smart urban growth and can help urban planners and water managers to develop an adaptive path to meet future water demand and decrease the vulnerability of municipal water supply systems to shortage.

Effects of Climate Change on Natural-Caused Fire Activity in Western U.S. National Forests

“…This number is on the rise as fire events become more frequent and their damage becomes more catastrophic [13]. Wildfire losses in developed areas could substantially increase in the western United States due to the expanding wildland-urban interface [12] in which the buildup of forest fuels coupled with increasing aridification, drought, and urbanization [8,14,15] are likely to catalyze plume-driven fires spreading to developed areas. As wildfire losses continue to grow and the WUI problems gain more attention, the enhanced understanding of changes in future forest fires is vital and further study is needed to develop community mitigation and planning strategies to adapt to the increasing incidence of natural-caused forest fires [12].…”

Costs-benefit Analysis for the use of Shallow Groundwater as non-conventional Water Resource

“…Supplying water needs for a growing population in urban areas under climate change scenarios requires to rethink water resources management, as water withdrawals continue to grow and, in parallel, resources become less available (Thomas and Durham 2003;Salgot et al 2012;Strzepek et al 2010;UN 2018;Cook et al 2018;. Mukherjee et al 2018;Boretti and Rosa 2019;Ferrasso et al 2021;Heidari et al 2021;Oral et al 2021). Commonly freshwaters are still consumed to satisfy non-potable water uses, although it is estimated that the systematic exploitation of alternative resources could reduce the domestic water consumption up to 50% (Cureau and Ghisi 2019).…”

Making waves: A vision for digital water utilities

“…It is highly relevant in all industrial sectors due to increased pressures to meet societal demands on efficiency and sustainability ( Xu et al., 2018 ). Water utilities face increasing expectations on services while water resources diminish and deteriorate as a result of climate change ( Earman and Dettinger, 2011 ; Heidari et al., 2021 ; Hongve et al., 2004 ; Lettenmaier et al., 1999 ). Adopting circular systems, facing ageing infrastructure, demographic changes, and increased pressure from climate change create significant challenges ( Arup, 2015 ; Cosgrove and Loucks, 2015 ; Ofwat, 2020 ).…”