Full Description

This study, conducted for the City of Santa Cruz, describes the types of impacts and the degree of hardship that water shortages impose on municipal water customers. The study examines six hypothetical drought scenarios ranging from a mild 10 percent seasonal shortage to an extreme 60 percent deficit in water supply. To assess how the impacts would differ among the City's six largest customer groups, available water supplies were allocated in accordance with the priorities established in the City's drought contingency plan. Interviews, focus groups, or surveys were employed to research the likely actions each group of customers would take if required to curtail their water use by a specified amount and the effects of those actions on their lifestyle or business operation. The findings illustrate how the potential impacts and level of hardship grows as the magnitude of shortage increases. For residential customers, milder shortages are expected to result primarily in inconvenience, while more severe shortages are expected to result in economic, aesthetic, or health and safety impacts. Economic impacts of water shortages on business and industrial customers are seen to vary widely. Among the most significantly affected sectors are the landscape industry and the hospitality industry including restaurants, hotels, and visitor-serving businesses, which depend on summer revenues owing to the seasonal nature of the local economy. Customers with extensive landscaping experience the largest cutbacks of any class due to the low priority afforded outdoor water use in a drought. As a result, these customers are expected to suffer large losses even during relatively moderate water shortages. The findings will be used by the City in its future water study to compare public policy tradeoffs between the economic and environmental cost of providing increased capacity on the supply side and the risk and potential impacts of curtailing customer water use on the demand side. Includes tables.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2002 Number of Pages: 11File Size: 1 file , 190 KB