Abstract

Los Angeles, which relies on large infrastructure systems that import water over hundreds of miles, faces a future of reduced imports. Within Los Angeles and its hundreds of water agencies, the capacity to adapt to future changes is influenced by laws, institutions, and hydrogeology. This paper presents a systems analysis of urban water management in metropolitan Los Angeles County to assess opportunities for increasing local water reliance. A network flow model was developed to investigate management tradeoffs across engineered, social, and environmental systems. With an aggressive regional demand target, increased stormwater capture (300%), and prioritized water reuse from existing facilities, imported water supplies can be cut by 30% while maintaining landscapes, economic productivity, and groundwater resources. Further reducing imports (by 40–50%) is possible through actions to promote additional reuse, recharge, conservation, and groundwater access. Reducing imported water without significant conservation results in likely groundwater overdraft. Fragmented networks of agencies in Los Angeles create an uneven landscape of vulnerability to water shortages. The paper discusses model applications, research needs, and policy implications of results for dry-climate cities.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the National Science Foundation’s Water, Sustainability, and Climate program (NSF WSC #1204235), and the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation. Many thanks to Brianna Pagan for assistance in collecting data, Daniel Bradbury and Lee Alexanderson at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works for assistance using WMMS, and Grace Chan at the Metropolitan Water District for compiling data. Debbie Cheng and Paul Cleland contributed to data collection and analysis. Two anonymous reviewers provided very helpful comments.

References

Ahuja, R. K., Magnanti, T. L., and Orlin, J. B. (1993). Network flows: Theory, algorithms, and applications, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Artes [Computer software]. Univ. of California, Los Angeles.
Asano, T. (2006). Water reuse: Issues, technology, and applications, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Baker, M. M. (1948). “The quest for pure water: The history of water purification from the earliest records to the twentieth century.” The American Water Works Association, New York.
Bazaraa, M. S., and Jarvis, J. J. (1977). Linear programming and network flows, Wiley, New York.
Blake, N. M. (1956). Water for the cities: A history of the urban water supply problem in the United States, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY.
Blomquist, W. A. (1992). Dividing the waters: Governing groundwater in southern California, ICS Press, San Francisco.
Brabec, E., Schulte, S., and Richards, P. L. (2002). “Impervious surfaces and water quality: A review of current literature and its implications for watershed planning.” J. Plann. Lit., 16(4), 499–514.
Brandt, A. (2015). “Stormwater and green infrastructure: The next generation of Los Angeles stormwater infrastructure.” American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, Chicago.
Brown, R., and Farrelly, M. (2009). “Delivering sustainable urban water management: A review of the hurdles we face.” Water Sci. Technol., 59(5), 839–846.
Brown, R., Keath, N., and Wong, T. (2008). “Transitioning to water sensitive cities: Historical, current and future transition states.” 11th Int. Conf. on Urban Drainage, Edinburgh, U.K.
Bulkeley, H., and Betsill, M. (2005). “Rethinking sustainable cities: Multilevel governance and the ‘urban’ politics of climate change.” Environ. Politics, 14(1), 42–63.
Cahill, R., and Lund, J. (2013). “Residential water conservation in Australia and California.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 117–121.
Cahill, R., Lund, J., DeOreo, B., and Medellín-Azuara, J. (2013). “Household water use and conservation models using Monte Carlo techniques.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17(10), 3957–3967.
Cominola, A., Giuliani, M., Piga, D., Castelletti, A., and Rizzoli, A. E. (2015). “Benefits and challenges of using smart meters for advancing residential water demand modeling and management: A review.” Environ. Modell. Software, 72, 198–214.
Daigger, G. T. (2007). “Wastewater management in the 21st century.” J. Environ. Eng., 671–680.
Daigger, G. T. (2011). Sustainable urban water and resource management, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC.
DeOreo, W., and Mayer, P. (2012). “Insights into declining single family residential water demands.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 104(6), E383–E394.
DeShazo, J. R., and McCann, H. (2015). “Los Angeles county community water systems: Atlas and policy guide. Volume I. Supply vulnerabilities.” At-Risk Populations, Opportunities for Conservation, Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA, Los Angeles.
Diba, A., Louie, P. W. F., Mahjoub, M., and Yeh, W. W. G. (1995). “Planned operation of large-scale water-distribution system.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 260–269.
Draper, A. J., Jenkins, M. W., Kirby, K. W., Lund, J. R., and Howitt, R. E. (2003). “Economic-engineering optimization for California water management.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 155–164.
Duffy, J. (1990). The sanitarians: A history of American public health, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL.
Duncan, H. P. (1995). “A review of urban stormwater quality processes.” Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Bruce, Australia.
Erie, S. P., and Brackman, H. D. (2006). Beyond Chinatown: The metropolitan water district, growth, and the environment in southern California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Fink, J. (2011). “The case for an urban genome project: A shortcut to global sustainability?” The bridge on urban sustainability, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC.
Frontinus, S. J. (1973). “The two books on the water supply of the city of Rome by Sextus Julius Frontinus 97 A.D.” New England Water Works Association, Boston.
Gleick, P. (2003). “Water use.” Ann. Rev. Environ. Resour., 28(1), 275–314.
Gober, P. (2010). “Desert urbanization and the challenges of water sustainability.” Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustainability, 2(3), 144–150.
Gold, M., Hogue, T., Pincetl, S., Mika, K., and Radavich, K. (2015). Los Angeles sustainable water project: Ballona creek watershed, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Los Angeles.
Gunderson, L., and Holling, C. S. (2002). Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems, Island Press, Washington, DC.
Gurobi [Computer software]. Gurobi Optimization, Inc., Houston.
Hale, R. L., et.al. (2015). “iSAW: Integrating structure, actors, and water to study socio-hydro-ecological systems.” Earth’s Future, 3(3), 110–132.
Hall, P. (1998). Cities in civilization, Pantheon Books, New York.
Hanak, E., et al. (2011). “Managing California’s water: From conflict to reconciliation.” Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco.
Hanak, E., and Davis, M. (2006). “Lawns and water demand in California.”, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco.
Hanak, E., and Lund, J. R. (2012). “Adapting California’s water management to climate change.” Clim. Change, 111(1), 17–44.
Harou, J. J., Pulido-Velazquez, M., Rosenberg, D. E., Medellín-Azuara, J., Lund, J. R., and Howitt, R. E. (2009). “Hydro-economic models: Concepts, design, applications, and future prospects.” J. Hydrol., 375(3–4), 627–643.
Heaney, J. P., and Sansalone, J. J. (2009). “Urban stormwater management in 2050.” World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009: Great Rivers, ASCE, Reston, VA, 234–234.
Hering, J. G., Waite, T. D., Luthy, R. G., Drewes, J. E., and Sedlak, D. L. (2013). “A changing framework for urban water systems.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 47(19), 10721–10726.
Hollis, G. E. (1975). “The effect of urbanization on floods of different recurrence interval.” Water Resour. Res., 11(3), 431–435.
Howe, C. W., and Smith, M. G. (1994). “The value of water supply reliability in urban water systems.” J. Environ. Econ. Manage., 26(1), 19–30.
Hughes, S., and Pincetl, S. (2014). “Evaluating collaborative institutions in context: The case of regional water management in southern California.” Environ. Plann. C: Government and Policy, 32(1), 20–38.
Jensen, P. A., and Barnes, W. (1980). Network flow programming, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
JetBrains. (2015). “PyCharm community edition 4.5.4.” Prague, Czech Republic.
Kiparsky, M., Sedlak, D. L., Thompson, B. H., and Truffer, B. (2013). “The innovation deficit in urban water: The need for an integrated perspective on institutions, organizations, and technology.” Environ. Eng. Sci., 30(8), 395–408.
LACDPW (Los Angeles County Department of Public Works). (2014). “Spreading grounds database: Water conserved information.” ⟨http://dpw.lacounty.gov/wrd/SpreadingGround/watercon/⟩ (Nov. 25, 2014).
LACDPW (Los Angeles County Department of Public Works) and Tetra Tech. (2009). Loading simulation program in C++(LSPC) version 3.1 user’s manual, Fairfax, VA.
LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power). (2015a). “Stormwater capture master plan.” Geosyntec, TreePeople, Los Angeles.
LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power). (2015b). “Urban water management plan.” Los Angeles.
Langridge, R., Brown, A., Rudestam, K., and Conrad, E. (2015). “An evaluation of California’s adjudicated groundwater basins.” Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA.
Lee, J. H., Bang, K. W., Ketchum, L. H., Choe, J. S., and Yu, M. J. (2002). “First flush analysis of urban storm runoff.” Sci. Total Environ., 293(1–3), 163–175.
Leverenz, H. L., Tchobanoglous, G., and Asano, T. (2011). “Direct potable reuse: A future imperative.” J. Water Reuse Desalin., 1(1), 2.
Libecap, G. D. (2005). “Chinatown: Owens valley and western water reallocation-getting the record straight and what it means for water markets.” Texas Law Rev., 83(7), 2055–2089.
Liu, J., et al. (2007). “Complexity of coupled human and natural systems.” Science, 317(5844), 1513–1516.
Loucks, D. P., van Beek, E., Stedinger, J. R., Dijkman, J. P. M., and Villars, M. T. (2005). “Urban water systems.” Water resources systems planning and management: An introduction to methods, models and applications, UNESCO, Paris.
Lund, J. R., and Israel, M. (1995). “Water transfers in water resource systems.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 193–204.
Marsalek, J., Rochfort, M. Q., and Savic, P. D. (2001). “Urban water as a part of integrated catchment management.” Chapter 2, Frontiers in urban water management deadlock hope, C. Maksimovic and J. A. Tejada-Guilbert, eds., IWA, London.
McCuen, R. H. (1979). “Downstream effects of stormwater management basins.” J. Hydraul. Div., 105(11), 1343–1356.
Medellín-Azuara, J., et al. (2008). “Adaptability and adaptations of California’s water supply system to dry climate warming.” Clim. Change, 87(S1), 75–90.
Melosi, M. (2000). The sanitary city: Urban infrastructure in America from colonial times to the present, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Melosi, M. (2011). Precious commodity: Providing water for America’s cities, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
Metcalf and Eddy. (2007). Water reuse: Issues, technologies, and applications, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Mihelcic, J. R., et al. (2003). “Sustainability science and engineering: The emergence of a new metadiscipline.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 37(23), 5314–5324.
Mini, C., Hogue, T. S., and Pincetl, S. (2014a). “Estimation of residential outdoor water use in Los Angeles, California.” Landscape Urban Plann., 127, 124–135.
Mini, C., Hogue, T. S., and Pincetl, S. (2014b). “Patterns and controlling factors of residential water use in Los Angeles, California.” Water Policy, 16(6), 1054–1069.
Mitchell, V. G. (2006). “Applying integrated urban water management concepts: A review of Australian experience.” Environ. Manage., 37(5), 589–605.
Naik, K., and Glickfeld, M. (2015). “Water distribution system efficiency: An essential or neglected part of the water conservation strategy for Los Angeles county water retailers?” UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Los Angeles.
NAS (National Academies Press). (2015). Using graywater and stormwater to enhance local water supplies: An assessment of risks, costs, and benefits, Washington, DC.
Niemczynowicz, J. (1999). “Urban hydrology and water management—Present and future challenges.” Urban Water, 1(1), 1–14.
Novotny, V., Ahern, J., and Brown, P. (2010). Water centric sustainable communities: Planning, retrofitting, and building the next urban environment, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Office of the Mayor, Eric Garcetti. (2015). “Plan: Transforming Los Angeles.” City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
Ostrom, E. (2009). “A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems.” Science, 325(5939), 419–422.
Ostrom, V. (1962). “The political economy of water development.” Am. Econ. Rev., 52(2), 450–458.
Pataki, D. E., Boone, C. G., Hogue, T. S., Jenerette, G. D., McFadden, J. P., and Pincetl, S. (2011). “Socio-ecohydrology and the urban water challenge.” Ecohydrol., 4(2), 341–347.
Pincetl, S. (2010). “From the sanitary city to the sustainable city: Challenges to institutionalising biogenic (nature’s services) infrastructure.” Local Environ., 15(1), 43–58.
Pincetl, S., Porse, E., and Cheng, D. (2016). “Fragmented flows: Water supply in Los Angeles county.” Environ. Manage., 58(2), 208–222.
Porse, E. (2013). “Stormwater governance and future cities.” Water, 5(1), 29–52.
Porse, E., Glickfeld, M., Mertan, K., and Pincetl, S. (2015). “Pumping for the masses: Evolution of groundwater management in metropolitan Los Angeles.” GeoJ, 81(5), 793–809.
Python 2.7.6 [Computer software]. Python Software Foundation, Wilmington, DE.
Saleth, R. M., and Dinar, A. (2005). “Water institutional reforms: Theory and practice.” Water Policy, 7(1), 1–19.
Schueler, T. R. (1994). “The importance of imperviousness.” Watershed Prot. Tech., 1(3), 100–111.
Sedlak, D. L. (2014). Water 4.0: The past, present, and future of the world’s most vital resource, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Swyngedouw, E. (1997). “Power, nature, and the city: The conquest of water and the political ecology of urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880–1990.” Environ. Plann. A, 29(2), 311–332.
Tanaka, S. K., et al. (2006). “Climate warming and water management adaptation for California.” Clim. Change, 76(3–4), 361–387.
Tarr, J. (1984). “The evolution of the urban infrastructure in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” Perspectives on urban infrastructure, National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
Tarr, J. (2001). “Urban history and environmental history in the United States: Complementary and overlapping fields.” Environmental problems in European cities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries/Umweltprobleme in Europäischen Städten des 19 und 20th Jahrhunderts, Waxmann, Munster, New York, 25–39.
Tarr, J., McCurley, J., McMichael, F., and Yosie, T. (1984). “Water and wastes: A retrospective assessment of wastewater technology in the U.S., 1800–1932.” Technol. Culture, 25(2), 226–263.
Tvedt, T., and Oestigaard, T. (2014). “Urban water systems—A conceptual approach.” History of Water, I.B. Tauris., London.
USBR (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation). (2014). Los Angeles basin stormwater conservation study. Task 2: Water supply and water demand projections, Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles.
Wilson, A. (1998). “Water supply in ancient Carthage.” J. Rom. Archaeology Suppl. Ser., 28, 65–102.
WRD (Water Replenishment District of Southern California). (2015). “Groundwater basins master plan: Draft program environmental impact report.” Los Angeles.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 143Issue 9September 2017

History

Received: Sep 30, 2016
Accepted: Mar 8, 2017
Published online: Jun 21, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Nov 21, 2017

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Associate Research Director, California Center for Sustainable Communities, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496 (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6691-2104. E-mail: [email protected]
Kathryn B. Mika [email protected]
Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496. E-mail: [email protected]
Elizaveta Litvak [email protected]
Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Utah, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. E-mail: [email protected]
Kimberly F. Manago [email protected]
Graduate Student, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: [email protected]
Kartiki Naik [email protected]
Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496. E-mail: [email protected]
Madelyn Glickfeld [email protected]
Director of Partnerships, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496. E-mail: [email protected]
Terri S. Hogue, M.ASCE [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: [email protected]
UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor for Environment and Sustainability, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496. E-mail: [email protected]
Diane E. Pataki [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Utah, 257 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. E-mail: [email protected]
Stephanie Pincetl [email protected]
Professor-in-Residence and Founding Director, California Center for Sustainable Communities, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, 619 Charles E. Young Dr. East, La Kretz Hall, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496. E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share