(1) Title:        
Water Conservation Strategies and Impact on Water Consumption
(2)  Objectives
            Regional economic systems seek sustainable growth over time.  If achieved, an area can experience significant improvements in employment, personal income and regional output levels.  Maximizing such growth rates and sustaining them can be especially valuable to economic systems characterized by high unemployment, low income and output levels, and/or areas in a developmental stage.  Many such regions face a potential constraint in their efforts to generate maximum, sustainable growth:  the challenge of providing an adequate, continuous supply of water over time.
            Given the own price inelasticity of water demand plus the concern of many regions to provide an adequate and affordable supply of water to households, water price strategies have been of relatively little use in managing water demand over time.  As a result, many communities have implemented non-price water management strategies; specifically, water conservation programs.  One large metropolitan area, El Paso del Norte, has been a leader in the development and implementation of a variety of water conservation programs for almost 20 years.  Yet, little formal, quantitative analysis has been conducted concerning the impacts of these strategies, individually and collectively, on water consumption rates.
(3) Data methods
This paper conducts an econometric analysis of water consumptions levels in the Paso del Norte region of the U.S.  Approximately 230 monthly observations are analyzed to assess the following propositions:
       -  Do non-price water conservation strategies have a significant impact upon water usage?
-          Are there “cumulative effects” with respect to the implementation of conservation programs over time?
(4) Expected Results
            Data is still being collected