Evaluating Water Demands under Climate Change and Transitions in the Urban Environment

Abstract

Urban regions are complex and dynamic, with many external and internal factors driving growth, movement, and composition. Forecasting regional characteristics important for long-term planning is inherently difficult for such settings; but quantitative estimates of the changes in urban environments are necessary for engineers and planners. This study examines how population growth, land use, pricing policy, and climate change impact residential water demands in the Puget Sound Region. A spatially-disaggregate water demand model is coupled with an advanced urban simulation model (UrbanSim) to generate demands at detailed spatial resolution over a 30 year planning horizon. A Baseline Scenario is compared with output from UrbanSim for three different planning scenarios.