Water Use

Environmental Indicators:

Societal Indicators:

Energy Population Water Use Endangered Species

Disclaimer: This tool is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari browsers. It does not work with Internet Explorer.

Explore the map:

The initial map shows the percent change in all freshwater withdrawals by all use categories for counties betweem 1985 to 2015.
Each of the above highlighted attributes can be changed in the grey sidebar to the left of the map. Click the Update Map button to refresh the map based on your selections.

Explore the charts:

Click a location on the map and scroll down to see how water use changes over time at that location. Click on the tabs to view additional information. Click on the magnifying glass icon on the right side of the map to search for a location.

Select

Political Boundary:

Water Type:


Use Category:

Time Period:

Start Year:

End Year:


Withdrawals over time (left) displays water withdrawals over time based on map selections (freshwater type, time period, and use category). The dashed line shows water withdrawals at the selected start year.

Change in withdrawals by category over time (right) shows the change in withdrawals by each use category relative to the start year (0 MGD). Categories may be turned on and off.

Note that the use categories and estimation methods may change between water censuses. See Information tab for more details.

Withdrawals over time

Change in withdrawals by category over time

Categories: Domestic Public Supply Industrial Irrigation Livestock Mining Power All

Change in withdrawal source over time (bottom left) shows the percentage of total (not by use category) water withdrawn from groundwater and surface water in the selected start and end year.

Withdrawals by category shows the percentage of withdrawals by use category for surface water (top) and groundwater (bottom) in the start (left) and end (right) year.

Per capita withdrawals for public supply (top right) shows the distribution of daily per capita withdrawals for public water supply (based on the population served by public water utilities). The brown line highlights the selected location.

Per capita withdrawals (bottom right) shows the distribution of daily per capita water use (based on the total population) for the selected use category. If you do not see the selected location line, click the autoscale button that appears above the graph when you hover over it.

Change in withdrawal source over time

Withdrawals by category

Domestic Public Supply Industrial Irrigation Livestock Mining Thermoelectric Power

Per capita withdrawals for public supply

Per capita withdrawals

Per capita withdrawals by political boundary (left) shows per capita water withdrawals (based on all withdrawals and the total population) for the selected water source and end year.

Percent withdrawn by use category for surrounding areas shows the percentage of water withdrawn for different categories by political boundary.

Per capita withdrawals relative to surrounding areas

Comparison of withdrawal categories

Water Use steadily increased with population growth until the mid 1980's, when water saving technologies began to lower per capita water use. Water use is reported by use categories such as: residential (public supply and domestic wells), industrial, agricultural (irrigation and livestock), and power generation. Freshwater can be withdrawn from surface water or groundwater. Water use refers to water withdrawn and not the amount of water consumed (in other words it does not account for water returned to a stream or to the ground after being used). Understanding the context of changing patterns of water demand can be useful for water managers and planners.


  • Data Sources:

  • Methods:
    • County and State: Water use, here referring to the amount of water withdrawn (not consumed) was reported by county, source (surface water or groundwater), and category (such as public supply, industrial, irrigation). Water withdrawals by county were summed to estimate State withdrawals.
    • Corps Divisions/Districts: Counties were spatially joined to Corps Divisions and Districts. Water withdrawals by source and category were summed for all counties within a Corps Division or District.
    • Comparing Between Years: Since the data are available for every five years since 1985 and the methodology has changed between surveys (click here for more details), there were not enough data points for robust trend tests. Instead the percent change relative to selected years were visualized. All calculations were performed in R.
    • Per Capita Water Use: Per capita water use = (water withdrawn (MGD) / 1,000,000 / Population. The units are in gallons per day.

  • Data Last Updated: June 2018
  • Anticipated Update Frequency: Every 5 years