United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 tackles the long-neglected economic dimension of water utilization by monitoring nations’ water use efficiency (WUE). However, it is imperative to emphasize the need for consistent spatial-temporal subnational WUE estimates, rather than relying solely on recent national trends, which can obscure crucial water use concerns and improvement opportunities. Here, a time series analysis of national, state, and sectoral (e.g., industrial, service, and agriculture) WUE from 1980 to 2015 was developed by compiling the most comprehensive and disaggregated water and economic data from 3243 US counties and 50 US states. The US total WUE increased by 181% from 16.2 (1985) to 45.6 USD/m³ (2015), driven by service sector WUE enhancements. The increased industry and service WUEs in most states were more strongly correlated with decreased per capita water withdrawal than with economic growth. Simultaneously, reductions in agriculture WUE were observed in 18 states potentially because of the complicated interaction of diverse factors specific to local communities. Expanding WUE gaps between affluent and less affluent states, and persisting WUE gaps between water-abundant andwater-scarce states highlight the need to advance policies to support under-resourced communities in effective water planning and water pricing for advancing equitable development.

中文翻译：

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评估 1985 年至 2015 年美国节水型经济的进展


联合国可持续发展目标 6 通过监测各国的用水效率 (WUE) 来解决长期被忽视的用水经济问题。然而，必须强调需要一致的时空地方 WUE 估算，而不是仅仅依赖最近的国家趋势，这可能会掩盖关键的用水问题和改进机会。这里，通过汇编来自 3243 个美国县和 50 个州的最全面和分类的水和经济数据，对 1980 年至 2015 年国家、州和部门（例如工业、服务业和农业）WUE 进行了时间序列分析。在服务业 WUE 增强的推动下，美国总 WUE 从 16.2（1985 年）增长到 45.6 美元/百万 ³ （2015 年），增长了 181%。大多数州工业和服务业用水利用效率的增加与人均取水量减少的相关性比与经济增长的相关性更强。同时，18 个州的农业 WUE 有所下降，这可能是由于当地社区特有的多种因素的复杂相互作用所致。富裕国家和不太富裕国家之间不断扩大的WUE差距，以及水资源丰富国家和水资源匮乏国家之间持续存在的WUE差距，凸显了需要推进政策，支持资源贫乏社区进行有效的水资源规划和水定价，以促进公平发展。