Urban Residential Demand for Water in the United States

from recent severe drought and the substantial increase in urban population which has led to an increased demand for water by all sectors including residential, commercial, and industrial users. Concurrently, capital expenditures necessary to increase the capacity of any water system have increased dramatically due to a general price inflation which has offset advantages from economies of scale generated by technological change and improved operating efficiencies [Hanke 1975, p. 219]. The estimation of urban water demand has progressed from a requirements concept, to economic demand models in which the scope is limited to a homogeneous region and/or population, to generalized multivariate models covering the entire nation. This study presents a generalized model allowing for categorical effects due to regional and size-of-city differences on urban residential water demand.