Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems, University of Colorado Denver , Denver, Colorado- 80217, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2017 Apr 18;51(8):4452-4460. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b01711. Epub 2017 Apr 10.
Water resource management and governance at the river basin scale is critical for the sustainable development of rural agrarian regions in the West. This research applies a consumptive water use analysis, inspired by the Water Footprint methodology, to the Upper Rio Grande Basin (RGB) in south central Colorado. The region is characterized by water stress, high dessert conditions, declining land health, and a depleting water table. We utilize region specific data and models to analyze the consumptive water use of RGB. The study reveals that, on an average, RGB experiences three months of water shortage per year due to the unsustainable extraction of groundwater (GW). Our results show that agriculture accounts for 77% of overall water consumption and it relies heavily on an aquifer (about 50% of agricultural consumption) that is being depleted over time. We find that, even though potato cultivation provides the most efficient conversion of groundwater resources into economic value (m GW/$) in this region, it relies predominantly (81%) on the aquifer for its water supply. However, cattle, another important agricultural commodity produced in the region, provides good economic value but also relies significantly less on the aquifer (30%) for water needs. The results from this paper are timely to the RGB community, which is currently in the process of developing strategies for sustainable water management.
流域尺度的水资源管理和治理对西部农村农业地区的可持续发展至关重要。本研究应用消费性用水分析方法，借鉴水足迹方法，对科罗拉多州中南部的上里奥格兰德流域（RGB）进行了分析。该地区水资源紧张，气候干燥，土地健康状况下降，地下水位不断下降。我们利用区域特定数据和模型来分析 RGB 的消费性用水。研究表明，由于地下水（GW）的不可持续开采，RGB 平均每年有三个月的用水短缺。我们的研究结果表明，农业用水占总用水量的 77%，并且严重依赖于一个含水层（约占农业用水量的 50%），而这个含水层正在逐渐枯竭。我们发现，尽管土豆种植在该地区将地下水资源转化为经济价值的效率最高（每百万加仑地下水产生的美元价值），但它主要依赖于含水层来供水。然而，另一种在该地区生产的重要农产品——牛，提供了良好的经济价值，但对含水层的依赖程度（30%）要低得多。本研究结果及时提供给 RGB 社区，目前该社区正在制定可持续水资源管理战略。
