Building Water-Efficient Cities Requires Collaboration

How much water single-family residences use is closely related to a community's built environment, according to a University of Arizona-led study. In particular, design factors such as vegetated land cover, housing density and lot size appear to have a strong impact on water use. The results can provide key data for city planners and water managers looking to develop sustainable water use strategies for their communities, the authors suggest in the paper that was published recently in the Journal of the American Planning Association.Philip Stoker — assistant professor in the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture — and a team of researchers focused on how