Stay-at-Home Orders during the COVID-19 Pandemic Reduced Urban Water Use

Abstract

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments instituted “stay-at-home” orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The resulting changes in work and life routines had the potential to substantially perturb typical patterns of urban water use. We present here an analysis of how these pandemic responses affected California’s urban water consumption. Using water demand modeling that fuses an integrated water use database, we first simulated the water use in a business-as-usual (non-pandemic) scenario for essentially all urban areas in California. We then subtracted the business-as-usual water use from the actual use to isolate the changes caused solely by the pandemic response. We found that the pandemic response decreased California’s urban water use by 7.9%, which can be largely attributed to an 11.2% decrease in the commercial, industrial, and institutional sector that more than offset a 1.4% increase in the residential sector. The influence of the stay-at-home practices on urban water use is slightly stronger than the combined influences of all non-pandemic factors. This study covers both metropolitans and suburbs; therefore, the results could also be useful for analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on water use in other urban areas.

Impacts of COVID-19 social distancing policies on water demand: A population dynamics perspective

“…By framing pandemic-induced SDPs as population dynamics, this study considers the system's operating environment for assessing SDPs' impacts on the temporal behavior of water demand—i.e., changes in longitudinal demand. This is a major contribution over existing studies (e.g., Balacco et al, 2020 ; Cooley et al, 2020 ; Kalbusch et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2021 ) that focus on pandemic-induced water-demand changes. Although their intellectual contributions to pandemic planning are important (further discussed in the subsequent section), these studies do not consider the socio-technical determinants, as well as spatial and temporal effects when studying water-demand changes.…”

“…Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a gap in knowledge and practice regarding how SDPs may impact the water sector. As such, researchers are working to identify and understand the following issues: pandemic-related challenges to and responses of utilities ( AWWA, 2020 ; Spearing et al, 2020 ; World Bank, 2020 ) as well as other water-sector companies (e.g., engineering and consulting firms) ( Cotterill et al, 2020 ); water-demand changes and patterns ( Balacco et al, 2020 ; Cooley et al, 2020 ; Kalbusch et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2021 ; Rizvi et al, 2020 ); infrastructures’ operational constraints ( Cooley et al, 2020 ) and water-service-related quality issues ( Cooley et al, 2020 ; Sivakumar, 2020 ) in response to water-demand changes; natural water resource quality ( Cooley et al, 2020 ; Lokhandwala and Gautam, 2020 ; Pant et al, 2021 ); water security ( Cooley et al, 2020 ; Kassem and Jaafar, 2020 ; Rafa et al, 2020 ); and sensitivity of the water-energy nexus to pandemic lockdowns ( Roidt et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Existing work ( Balacco et al, 2020 ; Cooley et al, 2020 ; Kalbusch et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2021 ) that explores pandemic planning in regard to water demand is limited, especially prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. A study ( Balacco et al, 2020 ) conducted in southern Italy compared 2020 water-demand patterns to those of 2019.…”

Considerations for Studying the Impacts of COVID-19 and Other Complex Hazards on Drinking Water Systems

“…COVID-19 has disrupted normal water use patterns along with normal ways of life. As a result of so much stay-at-home activity in 2020, water systems have observed shifts in water use from urban centers to suburbs, from residential to commercial buildings, and from early morning to midmorning (Berglund et al 2021;Li et al 2021;Lüdtke et al 2021;Aquatech 2020;Balacco et al 2020;Goldberg and Quail 2020;Raftelis 2020;Spearing et al 2020). Such changes in both the diurnal curves and the spatial distribution may have consequences for pressure, water age, leakage, revenue, and overall performance.…”

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Urban Water Cycle

“…New York and Minnesota reported the highest increase in daily water use by 28% and 25%, respectively. California, with the highest population, experienced an 11.5 % increase from February to April [66,67]. Some larger cities such as Boston, Massachusetts [68], Austin, Texas, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [69] experienced a reduction in total water demand from March to May 2020 [65], while other smaller cities such as Stoneham, and Swampscott, Massachusetts have experienced an increase in total water demand by 16.7% and 12.7%, respectively [67].…”