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Data release for Integrating physical and economic data into experimental water accounts for the United States: lessons and opportunities

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2025

Water provides society with economic benefits that increasingly involve tradeoffs, making accounting for water quality, quantity, and their corresponding economic productivity more relevant in our interconnected world. In the past, physical and economic data about water have been fragmented, but integration is becoming more widely adopted internationally through application of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts for Water (SEEA-Water), which enables the tracking of linkages between water and the economy over time and across scales. In this paper, we present the first national and subnational SEEA-Water accounts for the United States. We compile accounts for: (1) physical supply and use of water, (2) water productivity, (3) water quality, and (4) water emissions. These cover state and national levels for roughly the years 2000 to 2015. The results illustrate broad aggregate trends as well as subnational or industry-level phenomena. Specifically, the accounts show that total U.S. water use declined by 22% from 2000 to 2015, continuing a national trend seen since 1980. Total water use fell in 44 states, though groundwater use increased in 21 states. Nationally, a larger percent of water use comes from groundwater than at any time since 1950. Reductions in water use, combined with economic growth, lead to increases in water productivity for the entire national economy (65%), mining (99%), and agriculture (68%), though substantial variation occurred among states. Surface-water quality trends for the years 2002 to 2012 were most evident at regional levels, and differ by water-quality constituent and region. Chloride, nitrate, and total dissolved solids levels in groundwater had more consistent and widespread water-quality declines nationally. This work provides a baseline of recent historical water resource trends and their value in the U.S., as well as roadmap for the completion of future accounts for water, a critical ecosystem service. Our work also aids in the interpretation of ecosystem accounts in the context of long-term trends in U.S. water resources.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5d2e1344e4b038fabe22db8e
Data Last Modified 2020-09-29T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id e3bd9932-7f1f-4444-829f-cdc4ff0f0c0f
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -178.2117600, 18.921782, -66.969273, 71.406236
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ccbeafe3a911851a9eaa3d168b1c9362fd51a39cf28c32de1c3fffca18e7d965
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -178.2117600, 18.921782, -178.2117600, 71.406236, -66.969273, 71.406236, -66.969273, 18.921782, -178.2117600, 18.921782}

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