June 2010 Article: Effects of Urban Spatial Structure, Sociodemographics, and Climage on Residential Water Consumption in Hillsboro, Oregon, by Lily House-Peters, Bethany Pratt, and Heejun Chang.
We often think of the Northwest United States as a wet climate where seasonal outdoor water use would not be a major factor. However Lily House-Peters and her colleagues found this not to be the case. Their findings imply properties with large outdoor spaces are sensitive to variations in climate, especially an increase in summertime temperature, which is widely projected to be an outcome of anthropogenic climate change.
They found individual census blocks that respond with a significantly greater amount of seasonal water usage during a drought period. The census blocks that used the most external water during the summer 2004 had newer and larger homes, higher property values, and more affluent and well-educated residents. Importantly, their results suggest that during periods of low precipitation and higher than average maximum temperatures, seasonal water use tends to be more dependent on physical property variables rather than socioeconomic variables.
Basically, this research means that community design matters. Decisions planners make now will affect water use in the future. One more argument against the unsustainable big-house, big-yard American dream!
[Please note: I have quoted and paraphrased freely from the article, but the interpretation is my own!]
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