Shifting landscapes
Decoupled urban irrigation and greenness patterns during severe drought
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15550302 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kimberly J Quesnel (0000-0002-4933-4218, Stanford University), Newsha Ajami (0000-0003-4421-3764, Palo Alto Institute, corresponding author), Andrew Marx (0000-0002-4663-6384, University of Southern California) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 064012-064012 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ab20d4 |
| OpenAlex | W2952896271 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 43 |
Urban outdoor water conservation and efficiency offer high potential for demand-side management, but irrigation, greenness, and climate interlinks must be better understood to design optimal policies. To identify paired transitions during drought, we matched parcel-level water use data from smart, dedicated irrigation meters with high-spatial resolution, multispectral aerial imagery. We examined changes across 72 non-residential parcels using potable or recycled water for large landscape irrigation over four biennial summers (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) that encompassed a historic drought in California. We found that despite little change in irrigation levels during the first few years of the drought, parcel greenness deteriorated. Between summers 2010 and 2014, average parcel greenness decreased −61% for potable water irrigators and −56% for recycled water irrigators, providing evidence that vegetation could not reach its vigor from wetter, cooler years as the drought intensified with abnormally high temperatures. Between summers 2014–2016 as drought severity lessened, irrigation rates decreased significantly in line with high drought saliency, but greenness rebounded ubiquitously, on average +110% for potable water irrigators and +62% for recycled water irrigators, demonstrating climate-driven vegetation recovery as evaporation and plant evapotranspiration rates decreased. Transitions were similar for customers with both potable and recycled water; vegetation changes were dominated by the overarching climatic regime. As irrigation cannot always overcome drought conditions, which will become more severe under climate change, to maintain vegetation health, utilities and urban planners should consider the tradeoffs between providing green spaces and water scarcity. This includes evaluating the roles of climate-appropriate landscaping and adaptive reallocation of potable and recycled water resources to enhance water security. By addressing emerging themes in urban water management through analysis of data from forthcoming water metering and aerial imagery technologies, this research provides a unique perspective on water use, greenness, and drought linkages
Agronomy · Climate change · Evapotranspiration · Hydrology (agriculture · Irrigation · Vegetation (pathology · Water conservation · Water resource management · Water resources · Water scarcity · Water use · Environmental Science · Hydrology and Drought Analysis · Urban Stormwater Management Solutions · Water resources management and optimization · Ecology
Assessing vegetation response to irrigation strategies and soil properties in an urban reserve in southeast Australia
Drought-vulnerable vegetation increases exposure of disadvantaged populations to heatwaves under global warming
Guidelines to reduce the effects of urban heat in a changing climate
Diverse paradigms of residential development inform water use and drought-related conservation behavior
Making better use of accuracy data in land change studies
What will the neighbors think? Cultural norms and ecological design
Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California
Monitoring of Drought Awareness from Google Trends
An integrative regional resilience framework for the changing urban water paradigm
Urban outdoor water use and response to drought assessed through mobile energy balance and vegetation greenness measurements
Growing into Water Conservation? Decomposing the Drivers of Reduced Water Consumption in Las Vegas, NV
Can Money Buy Green? Demographic and Socioeconomic Predictors of Lawn-Care Expenditures and Lawn Greenness in Urban Residential Areas
The Impact of Homeowners Associations on Residential Water Demand Management in Phoenix, Arizona
Turfgrass revolution
Socio-environmental drought response in a mixed urban-agricultural setting
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |