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Urban Water Management in Response to Prolonged Droughts and Urban Growth
Author(s) -
Wittwer Glyn
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
economic papers: a journal of applied economics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1759-3441
pISSN - 0812-0439
DOI - 10.1111/1759-3441.12023
Subject(s) - water supply , population growth , environmental science , mainland china , population , natural resource economics , water resources , business , economics , water resource management , geography , environmental engineering , ecology , china , demography , archaeology , sociology , biology
Demand for water is inelastic. As a consequence of this, the prospective returns to supply augmentation of urban water may vary widely with seasonal conditions, population growth and water savings over time. Prolonged drought conditions in the first decade of the new millennium placed urban water supplies under stress. Substantial investments followed to augment the water supplies of each of Australia's mainland state capitals. Present judgements on whether the investments in individual cities were justified may be driven by current seasonal conditions rather than longer term analysis of supply and demand.