This publication reviews outdoor water use in 18 Texas cities in recent years to create a better understanding of outdoor water use and to examine how we might become more efficient in that use.
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This publication describes seven ways for Texas cities to conserve water and analyzes statewide progress for each.
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The Great Plains region of the United States is characterized by a significant dependence on agriculture; specifically irrigated agriculture. The regional economic dependence on irrigated agriculture and the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer due to agricultural pumping have been much of the basis for the relatively recent governmental interest in developing policy alternatives for conserving water in the aquifer. The objectives of this study were to analyze and evaluate the outcomes of specified water conservation policy alternatives on the Ogallala Aquifer underlying the Southern High Plains of Texas and Eastern New Mexico using non-linear optimization models. Results indicate that due to varying land use and hydrologic conditions in the Ogallala Aquifer, blanket water conservation policies will likely be inefficient.
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Are county governments capable stewards of urban life? Across the country, millions of low-income households live in urban enclaves that rely on county government for their most proximate tier of general purpose local government. Material conditions in many of these neighborhoods are reminiscent of early twentieth-century rural poverty, while others are a dystopic vision of twenty-first century urbanity, with clusters of housing tucked in between landfills, industrial plants, and freeways. This Article provides a vocabulary and a conceptual baseline for understanding this national pattern of unincorporated urban areas and presents a qualitative study of these neighborhoods in California, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. It explores the governmental status of these communities, and asks, for the first time, whether two tiers of general purpose local government-a city and a county-offer urbanized areas greater participatory voice, stronger protection from undesirable land uses, improved collective services, and greater housing choice than county rule alone. Providing a framework for evaluating local government, this Article posits that housing-market mobility, neighborhood habitability, and political voice are the three pillars of adequate local government. By this metric, we can no longer assume that county governments are equivalent to municipalities.
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The application of poultry litter to agricultural land has become a topic of interest for policy makers due to public concern about its effects on water quality. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) version 2005 is designed to assess nonpoint and point sources of pollution. In this study, six subwatersheds in Texas (HUC‐8; 12070101) are used to evaluate the model's ability to simulate water quality at a small scale. Each of these subwatersheds randomly received poultry litter rates of 0.0 to 13.4 Mg ha-1. Monthly and daily data from 2002 were used for calibration purposes, while 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004 were used for validation. The SCS runoff curve number for moisture condition II (CN2) and the soil evaporation compensation factor (ESCO) parameters were found to be more sensitive than the surface runoff lag time (SURLAG) and initial soil water content expressed as a fraction of field capacity (FFCB). The monthly and daily runoff model simulations for the six subwatersheds resulted in calibration Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values of 0.59 and 0.53 and validation NSE values 0.82 and 0.80, respectively. The monthly and daily R2 runoff values for the six subwatersheds resulted in calibration values of at least 0.60 and 0.53 and validation R2 values of 0.86 and 0.81, respectively. The observed trends included SWAT's overestimation of runoff in the dry periods and underestimation in the wet periods. The monthly NSE and R2 values for sediment and nutrient losses were generally above 0.4 and 0.5, respectively. Paired t‐tests for the monthly manually adjusted parameter simulation of sediment, organic N and P, NO3-N, and soluble P for the 2000‐2004 period losses showed that their respective SWAT means were not significantly different from the measured values ( = 0.05), except for NO3-N losses for the Y10 subwatershed (p‐value 0.042). The control subwatershed's measured and simulated water quality results were significantly different ( = 0.05) from the treated subwatersheds, most likely due to the amount of inorganic N present. Almost all of the subwatersheds that had poultry litter applied resulted in higher sediment, organic N, organic P, and soluble P losses than the control subwatershed upon averaging the monthly validation values. High NO3-N losses may have been a function of poultry litter and commercial fertilizers being applied before a large rainfall event occurred. The subwatersheds that received smaller amounts of commercial fertilizer and/or poultry litter lost more sediment, organic N, and organic P than the subwatersheds that received the higher litter and/or fertilizer treatments. Overall, the SWAT simulated the hydrology and the water quality constituents at the subwatershed scale more adequately when all of the data were used to simulate the model, as evidenced by statistical measures.
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Several best management practices (BMPs) have been implemented through Water Quality Management Plans (WQMPs) in the West Fork Watershed of Trinity River Basin in Texas, USA, where nonpoint source pollution is a serious concern. Major sources of pollution are sediment erosion and nutrients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term impact of implementation of WQMPs on nonpoint source pollution at the farm level and watershed level using a modeling approach. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool watershed model was applied to quantify the impacts of implementing WQMPs on sediment and nutrients. A pre- BMP scenario representing conditions of the watershed prior to the implementation of WQMPs, and a post-BMP scenario representing the conditions of the watershed after implementation of WQMPs were simulated to estimate the reductions in nonpoint source pollution due to WQMP implementation. The results are presented as percentage reductions in sediment and nutrient loadings, at the farm level and at two locations within the watershed. The results revealed that (a) the benefits of the WQMPs were greater (up to 99%) at the farm level and (b) the benefits due to WQMPs were 1e2% at the watershed level. Watershed level benefits are tangible as the WQMP implementation area is very small compared to the watershed area. An additional scenario was evaluated to show the possible impacts of expanding the current BMP effort on load reductions. This study showed that a modeling approach can be used to estimate the impacts of water quality management programs in large watersheds.
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This one-pager provides a simple list of instructions for people to save water at home.
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The design of institutions that maximizes water’s beneficial use in the face of growing demands for scarce andrand om supplies is the central policy issue in dry places. Information on water’s economic value enables decision makers to make informed choices on water development, conservation, allocation, and use when growing demands for all uses are made in the face of increased scarcity. Conceptually correct and empirically accurate estimates of the economic value of water are essential for rational allocation of scarce water across locations, uses, users, andtime periods. This review article raises several issues that must be considered in deriving accurate estimates of the economic value of water. These include establishing common denominators for water values in quantity, time, location and quality; identifying the point of view from which values are measured; distinguishing the period of adjustment over which values are estimated; and accounting for the difference between total, average, and incremental values of water. We llustrate values of water for agricultural use, based on a recent drought policy analysis of the Rio Grande Basin.
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