Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future

Cities have the best chance of reducing water use when people actively participate in water conservation, but even that might not be enough in the future.

By: Renee Obringer, Penn State and Dave White, Arizona State University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: April 8, 2026

Words: 1,169

Last Updated: 3 months, 3 weeks ago

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By Renee Obringer, Penn State and Dave White, Arizona State University

When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city’s first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices.

While demand management techniques like these have had a lot of success in reducing water use, our new research suggests that they may …

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