Sustainable water resource planning: An econometric model for the evaluation of water options with an application to northern New Castle County, Delaware

The development of a water resource planning and management strategy is often the response to water shortages. The traditional pattern of water resource planning has been to evaluate supply-side water policy options in detail while neglecting demand-side water policy options. Demand-side management (DSM) tries to select policy options that consider environmental and social costs in devising a water management strategy. The main purpose of this study is to develop a framework for sustainable water resource planning which considers both demand-side and supply-side options along with sustainability. Sustainable water resource management searches for least-cost options to meet water resource needs that consider both social and environmental impacts. A sustainable water resource management framework is built based on the six principles of sustainability related to water resource management practices: limits to growth, equity, integration and multiple use, least-cost planning, balanced conservation, and environmental stewardship. The framework will be applied to water resource management for New Castle County, Delaware.; The costs and new water contributions from various supply-side and demand-side options are examined in the scenario analyses in order to identify the least expensive means to meet the water goals for target year 2020. The unit cost of conserved water is calculated based on the annualized investment cost for water conservation and the annual water savings. This study presents the basic information necessary to develop successful sustainable water resource management strategies in state and county-wide water resource planning and policy. Such strategies may avoid or postpone expensive capital requirements for water supply systems, as well as avoid environmental degradation and stress on environmental and ecological systems resulting from water use. Based on these analyses, the most effective policies are the DSM water options.