Harmonized Database of Western U.S. Water Rights (HarDWR)

Water scarcity is a challenge in arid regions across the world (Dolan et al., 2021), and is managed by a wide range of governance and institutional approaches (Olmstead, 2014; Berbel and Esteban, 2019). As climate change and competition for water between uses continues to add pressure to already water-stressed regions (Garrick et al., 2019; Caretta et a., 2022), managers, policy makers, and scientists are seeking alternative management strategies to the insufficient policies currently in place (e.g., Berbel and Esteban). One such region is the western U.S., where water stress has increased due to several factors including long-term drought (Williams et al. 2022), increasing competition between agricultural and urban water users (Garrick et al., 2019), and new valuation of in-stream flows (Lane and Rosenberg, 2019).

The arid western U.S. began regulating water allocations during the gold rush period of the mid 1800's (Irwin v. Phillips, California 1855). During this time, water was essential for mining, and so the Prior Appropriation Doctrine for water allocation – which is largely still in use today – grew out of gold mining's system of prioritizing resource allocation based on the date when an individual or organization first laid a claim. This is known as "first in time, first in right", and establishes a system of seniority for water users. Following this 1855 ruling in California, all other western U.S. states (except Alaska) established their own forms of water regulation based in part or in whole on the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. We refer readers to Gopalakrishnan (1973) for a thorough history of the Prior Appropriation Doctrine in the U.S. West.

Here we present a new database of western U.S. water rights records. We produced the water rights database presented here in 4 main steps: (1) data collection, (2) data quality control, (3) data harmonization, and (4) generation of cumulative water rights curves. Each of steps (1) - (3) had to be completed in order to produce (4), the final product that was used in the modeling exercise in Grogan et al. (in review). All data in each step is associated with a spatial unit called a Water Management Area (WMA), which is the unit of water right administration. Steps (2) and (3) required us to make assumptions and interpretations, and to remove records from the raw data collection. We describe each of these assumptions and interpretations, as well as go further in depth in methodological details in Lisk et al. (in review).

This meta-record for the HarDWR database links to the original meta-record, which then links to the four distinct datasets that comprise the whole database: Harmonize Database of Western U.S.Water Rights (HarDWR). The four dataset that can be accessed are:

• HarDWR - Raw Water Rights Records: The collection of raw downloaded water right records, sourced from each state; step (1) above.
• HarDWR - Harmonized Water Rights Records: The harmonized water right records, by state; step (2) above.
• HarDWR - Cumulative Water Rights Curves: The calculated cumulative water rights curves, by state and by WMA; step (4) above.
• HarDWR - Water Management Area (WMA) Shapefiles: The spatial boundaries which are the administration unit of water rights for each state.

Citations

Anderson, M. T. & Woosley, L. H. Water availability for the western United States: key scientific challenges. (U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey ; For sale by U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services, 2005). https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2005/circ1261/pdf/C1261.pdf

Berbel, J. & Esteban, E. Droughts as a catalyst for water policy change. Analysis of Spain, Australia (MDB), and California. Glob. Environ. Change 58, 101969 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101969

Caretta, M. A. et al. Water. in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC Cambridge University Press. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.006

Carney, C. P., Endter‐Wada, J. & Welsh, L. W. The Accumulating Interest in Water Banks: Assessing Their Role in Mitigating Water Insecurities. JAWRA J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc. 57, 552–571 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12940

Dolan, F. et al. Evaluating the economic impact of water scarcity in a changing world. Nat. Commun. 12, 1915 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22194-0

Garrick, D. et al. Rural water for thirsty cities: a systematic review of water reallocation from rural to urban regions. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 043003 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0db7

Gopalakrishnan, C. The Doctrine of Prior Appropriation and Its Impact on Water Development.: A Critical Survey. Am. J. Econ. Sociol. 32, 61–72 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.1973.tb02180.x

Grogan, D. S. et al. Water balance model (WBM) v.1.0.0: a scalable gridded global hydrologic model with water-tracking functionality. Geosci. Model Dev. 15, 7287–7323 (2022). https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7287-2022

Grogan, D. et al. Bringing hydrologic realism to water markets. (in review)

Irwin v. Phillips. Cal. vol. 140 (1855). https://casetext.com/case/irwin-v-phillips

Lane, B. A. & Rosenberg, D. E. Promoting In-Stream Flows in the Changing Western US. J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag. 146, 02519003 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001145

Lisk, M. et al. Harmonized Database of Western U.S Water Rights (HarDWR) v.1. (in review, paper for this database).

Null, S. E. & Prudencio, L. Climate change effects on water allocations with season dependent water rights. Sci. Total Environ.571, 943–954 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.081

Olmstead, S. M. Climate change adaptation and water resource management: A review of the literature. Energy Econ. 46, 500–509 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.09.005

Tidwell, V. C. et al. Mapping water availability, projected use and cost in the western United States. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 064009 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064009

Williams, A. P., Cook, B. I. & Smerdon, J. E. Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021. Nat. Clim. Change 12, 232–234 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01290-z