Lynn Scarlett, a visiting scholar at Resources for the Future, emphasized the importance of ecosystem services or the idea of protecting natural infrastructure such as forests that absorb storm runoff. Roughly 2.7 miles of sea marsh protection can reduce storm surges by a foot, she said, citing federal government statistics.
Many localities using green infrastructure and other conservation measures have saved money over time, she said.
Oregon saved $60 million by paying farmers to plant miles of shade trees to cool down water flowing through the Tualatin River Basin, she said. The move was necessary to comply with regulations governing the temperature of water flowing from wastewater plants upstream.
The savings resulted from not having to install refrigeration plants to cool down the water from the plants, she said. Climate change threatens to heat water above acceptable levels in many other localities, she said.
Keeling of IBM said that technology -- such as South Bend's use of the computing cloud -- definitely can play an important role in water conservation. In Dubuque, Iowa, city officials recently installed a "real-time" computing system to monitor water consumption every 15 minutes.
The system automatically notifies households of problems such as water leaks and resulted in decreased water usage of 6.6 percent during the test pilot, she said.
At the same time, technology will not solve ongoing challenges such as a lack of coordination among the 53,000 water agencies in the United States, she said. Businesses need to gain a better sense of how much water they are actually using via sensors and meters, she said.
"Technology is never the end; it's always the means," said Keeling.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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8 Comments
Add CommentYes... "Water trading" sounds like a great idea, but it's unlikely that the 'water hoarders' will be interested in participating except to the extent that they can profit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI seem to recall that Nestle's, for example, is big in buying municipal water supplies around the world, especially in arid regions - you know, as an 'investment in the future'...
I agree hoarding and price gouging will become a particularly annoying problem. To that end I prpose we do two things. First complete and or build as the case may be the infrastructure to relocate flood waters that simply cause exorbenant damage elsewhere to aggricultural areas as is practcally possible. Second; where that is not an option build the infrastructutre to transport and desalinate sea water in huge quantities in areas requiring abundant freshwater supplies for consumtion and use as well as aggricultural sustainability. This is a completely feasable approach and would result in a great number of high paying jobs for skilled labor and engineers aloke.It would also allow for economic and ecological stability in this country we call home.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd Oxygen the commodity for the 22nd century. They will pay every cent they have for it,once the biosphere is in rapid decline.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf all life-forms that develop intelligence follow similar paths, its no wonder aliens have never made contact.
Mr.Chen Guangbiao decided to treat fresh air as a kind of commodity since the air pollution in China is so severe. And I wonder the water trading here is similar to what Mr.Chen did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWater is already a commodity that's precious (and not readily available, as it used to be) for many Indians. The fortunate few who have plenty of it tend to use it most wastefully, despite knowing that a great many of us are suffering without it. Now, things look to get a lot worse for most Indians, as the corporates home in on this precious commodity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article, while most interesting, did not point to useful ideas that could be used by 'most people' who do not have ready access to water.
GSC
Our freshwater stocks will improve with warming as rainfall increases 6.5% per degree warming (Wentz et al). This is all due to the acceleration of the water cycle with warmer water and the increase in sea surface areas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWater is not "consumed" when we use it. It is merely making a slight detour from it's natural cycle. Those areas with water shortage should be helped with continuing warming.
Unfortunately, temperatures have flattened, for the last 15 years and our water stocks will, as well. If we cool, the world will indeed experience acute shortages as more evaporation is locked up as polar and glacier ice.
I realize that this seems counter intuitive, but if you live in a water scarce area, warming helps, cooling is a disaster, as it always has been. GK
Tony Allan's book on virtual water
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_water
www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-Water-Tackling-Precious-Resource
points out that we've avoided water wars because we've traded virtual water in the form of food and other produce.
But he also points out that we need to rely on rain, not irrigation, for farming.
As for G. Karst's suggestion that we want global warming to get more water - well we may get more water overall, but that's no help if rainfall becomes more sporadic, more unpredictable, more extreme, as predicted by climate scintists, and as seemms indeed to be happening already. So no, global warming is not good for rain, not for food production.
Worth looking as well at
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'Feeding a Thirsty World: Challenges and Opportunities for a Water and Food Secure Future' by the Stockholm International Water Institute:
http://www.siwi.org/documents/Resources/Reports/Feeding_a_thirsty_world_2012worldwaterweek_report_31.pdf