Geography & Environmental Resources
 
Geography Home
Geography Info: Overview of Geography, Facilities, Research and Resources, Contact Geography
Undergraduate Program: Overview of Undergraduate Program, Courses, Specializations, Advisement in Geography, Internships & Cooperative Work Experience, Awards
Graduate Program: Overview of Graduate Program, Courses, Assistantships and Financial Aid, Admissions, Degree Requirement, Curriculum, Recent Thesis, Environmental Resources and Policy Ph.D. Program, Graduate GIS Lab, Awards
Faculty and Staff
Contact
 
Analysis of Water Use Trends in the United States: 1950 – 1995
Introduction
Project Description and Research Objectives
Project Reports
Project Data
Contact
Introduction
This web site has been established to support the work of the USGS-funded research project: Analysis of Water Use Trends in the United States: 1950 – 1995, 1999 USGS National Competitive Grants Program, Grant No. 99HQGR0222, Subgrant No. 00-312.

A description of the project and research objectives appears below. The project team welcomes comments, corrections, and questions related to the information posted to this web site. You can contact the project team at: bendzieg@siu.edu

This web site contains copies of the project documentation as well as many of the data files used during the project.

Back to top Back to the top

Project Description and Research Objectives
Improved information about water withdrawals and uses in specific geographical regions and a basic understanding of the factors that influence water use are a necessary requirement for sound water resources management. The USGS National Water-Use Information Program (NWUIP) has collected and published an extensive inventory of water use information since 1950. This information has provided a basis for the development and evaluation of national water policies as well as regional and local plans for the development and use of water resources. It also offers an excellent opportunity for examining and explaining historical trends in water use.

The research objectives are:

  • To provide important insights into the effects of individual factors that have influenced historical water withdrawals, and uses by various sectors
  • To provide USGS state coordinators with improved water use models for estimating water use in “nonreporting” categories or counties and verifying the reported data based on values of demographic, economic, and other data, which determine water use.

Back to top Back to the top

Project Reports
Documents that present the research findings from this project:

The above links will take you to the Table of Contents for each of these documents. Completed chapters of each document can be accessed by clicking on the chapter titles. These chapters are stored in Adobe Acrobat PDF-format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

One of the major purposes of posting these documents to the Internet is to solicit feedback from knowledgeable parties prior to the finalization of the project report. The project team welcomes comments, corrections, and questions about the information contained in these documents. You can contact the project team at: bendzieg@siu.edu

Back to top Back to the top

Project Data
This page contains links to the data that were used during the Analysis of Water Use Trends in the United States project. The data files are formatted in spreadsheet format. Each spreadsheet contains documentation of original sources and any alterations that have been made to the data.

All of the data files are being reformatted before being made available on this web page. More files will become available as they become available.

This data has been posted to the Internet so that it would be available for review by other researchers. Although every effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the data, it is possible that some errors may be present in these data files, and they should not be used for further analysis without independent confirmation. The project team welcomes comments, corrections, and questions about the data contained in these spreadsheets. You can contact the project team at: bendzieg@siu.edu

USGS Water-Use Data Files:

Many of the dependent and independent variables used in the Water Use Analysis were taken directly from the series of USGS water-use circulars published between 1950 and 1995.

The State-level data from 1950 to 1980 are available from USGS only in a printed format. The data from these reports that were used in the Analysis of Water Use Trends were entered into set of a spreadsheets in a single file. These spreadsheets along with their associated data dictionaries can be viewed or downloaded by clicking on the file name below:

US State Water Use 1950-80.xls

The USGS state level data from 1985 to 1995 is available online from USGS.

County-level data is also available from the USGS for 1985, 1990, and 1995.

Back to top Back to the top

Contact
To request a program packet contact: Jennie Absher

Copyright 2002, Board of Trustees Southern Illinois University. All rights reserved. Permission to use these materials may be obtained by contacting: Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Department of Geography; attn: Ben Dziegielewski, 618-453-6021, bendzieg@siu.edu

Back to top Back to the top