Article

Abstract

• In this paper we examine current policies to combat drought in urban areas in the United States to illuminate lessons learned for building climate adaptive capacity. We conducted interviews with practitioners involved in drought management at urban water utilities across the U.S. to understand: 1) both short- and long-term actions taken in response to drought; 2) perceptions of what constitutes an ‘effective’ drought response and whether and how this was measured; and 3) limitations to drought response. We apply criteria from a theoretical framing of adaptive capacity and then 'reason by analogy' to understand how adaptive capacity may be built or constrained in the future by such responses, including how future actions may be otherwise limited by political, social, physical and other factors. We find that drought responses overall are seen as successful in reducing water demand and helping to maintain system reliability, but can also reduce flexibility and introduce other limitations. Public perception, the multi-purpose nature of water, revenue structures, expectations and other social factors play a dominant role in constraining drought response options. We also find that some urban water utilities face challenges in measuring the effectiveness of demand reduction strategies because it can be difficult to attribute water savings, especially those related to outdoor water use. The limitations in drought policies experienced by urban utilities offer important lessons for the ability of systems to innovate toward more sustainable water systems for the future.

Creator

• Miller, Kathleen
• Travis, William
• Wilhelmi, Olga
• Ray, Andrea
• Kenney, Douglas
• Dilling, Lisa
• Klein, Roberta
• Daly, Meaghan E.

Date Issued

• 2019-01-01

Academic Affiliation

• Geography
• Western Water Policy Program
• Center for Science & Technology Policy Research

Journal Title

• Climate Risk Management

Subject

• flexibility
• drought
• water
• urban
• local
• climate adaptation
• public acceptance
• fairness
• policy
• conservation

Last Modified

• 2020-01-09

Resource Type

• Article

Rights Statement

• In Copyright

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2018.11.001

ISSN

• 2212-0963

Language

• English [eng]

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Relationships

In Collection:

• University Libraries Open Access Fund Supported Publications

Items

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Visibility	Actions
	droughtInUrbanWaterSystemsLearningLessonsForClimateAdap.pdf	2019-12-09	Public	Download