Drivers of urban water use

• We analyze a detailed disaggregated database to identify drivers of urban water use.
• Our research identifies water use patterns and drivers for common urban land uses.
• Climate, demographics, and the built environment influence urban water use.
• Large parcels and extensive turf grass cover are associated with higher water use.
• Minimizing these variables may be a planning strategy for water conservation.

In this paper we develop water demand models for four common urban land use types based on climate, demographics, and built environmental variables. The water demand models estimate annual water use at the parcel level for each land use type: single family residential, semi attached residential, apartments, and commercial. We hypothesize that water use is a function of climate, demographic, and built environmental variables and assessed whether the relative importance of these demographic, built environment, and climate variables on urban water use varies by land use type. We used analysis of variance to determine differences in mean annual use between urban land use types and ordinary least squares regression to measure the effect of independent variables on annual water use. Our paper identifies the driving factors of water use by urban land use type and suggests planning strategies; specifically form-based zoning codes, to promote water conservation in new developments.