A new database reveals how Americans use water.
Water powers our lives. It feeds our crops, keeps factories running, generates electricity, and fills our taps. But until now, no one had a clear, national picture of how much water we’re using—and for what.
Landon Marston, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, and his doctoral student Yunus Naseri are changing that. They have created the United States Water Withdrawals Database, the first nationwide resource to track who is drawing water from rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers, and in what amounts.
Their study appears in Nature Scientific Data. The database is now publicly available for communities and policymakers to use and includes:
- 188,857 unique water users
- 353,694 points of diversion and use
- 58 million withdrawal volumes
- 7.5 million individual records
Access to this kind of data has never been more important, as communities face increasing stress on water resources due to droughts, climate change, and population growth.
“Effective water management in the United States has been hampered by a critical data gap: we know far more about water supply than about who uses water, how much they withdraw, and where and when that water is used,” says Marston.
“The lack of spatially and temporally detailed water use data across all sectors of the economy impedes our ability to research, plan, and effectively manage our water resources.”
With the database, communities can see how water use changes with the seasons, identify which sectors use the most water in a region, and track long-term trends. That information can help guide smarter planning, conservation efforts, and sustainable management of this critical resource.
“This is the first time we’ve compiled all publicly available United States water withdrawal data at such detailed geographical and temporal scales,” says Naseri. “This enables more informed water management decisions from local communities to entire regions.”
Uniting scattered data
For decades, water withdrawal records were scattered, inconsistent, and often hard to access. Even though 43 out of 50 states mandate that large water users, such as farms and factories, report how much water they withdraw each year, each state has its own rules, reporting requirements, and data formats. Some make data publicly available online, while others require formal requests just to view it, making records difficult to analyze at a national scale.
To create the database, the research team worked with all 50 state agencies, successfully collecting and standardizing records from 42 states that stretch back more than a century.
Some findings were immediately apparent. Agricultural irrigation dominates the database, accounting for 51 percent of all recorded water withdrawal entries. The database also reveals that the power sector, including hydroelectric dams and power plant cooling, withdraws the largest total volume of water annually.
Crucially, the database tracks self-supplied water withdrawals, which is water drawn directly from a source by a wide range of water users, including power plants, mines, and public water systems. This includes both groundwater and surface water, with monthly and annual data when available, but nothing on deliveries to individual households or businesses.
Not perfect, but unmatched
The United States Water Withdrawals Database (USWWD) isn’t a complete census of every drop of water used in the United States, and coverage varies by state. Some states require nearly all users to report withdrawals, while others track only large users or specific categories of use.
The database also highlights a major limitation in how water use is monitored nationwide. Only about a quarter of reported water withdrawals are directly measured using meters. The majority rely on estimates or a mix of measurement and estimation methods, which further underscores the need for improved monitoring infrastructure and more consistent measurement practices across states.
“Creating USWWD revealed the real problem with how we record water use data,” says Naseri. “Each state collects water data differently, and there’s no central system to bring it together automatically. We need a unified, easily accessible database that both people and AI can use to find better ways to manage our water resources.”
Despite the challenges, it is the most detailed national resource of its kind, with each record clearly documenting how the data was obtained, making it far more transparent than most national water use datasets.
It provides an unprecedented foundation for studying water use trends across regions, sectors, and decades. The datasbase follows FAIR data principles, meaning it is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, which makes it ready for researchers, policymakers, and water managers to use.
Smarter water management
Across the country, water decisions that affect utility bills, drought restrictions, and long-term supply have often been made without a clear picture of who is using water and how much. By revealing where water actually goes, from farms to power plants, the United States Water Withdrawals Database helps communities make more informed choices about managing a limited resource.
“This database helps communities understand exactly who is using water and in what quantities, while allowing them to benchmark their usage against others,” Marston says. “As water supplies dwindle in many regions, having a proper accounting of water demand is critical to managing this precious resource.”
Source: Virginia Tech
