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california Water Today 97 Figure 2.12 Landscaping accounts for at least half of gross urban water use sOURcE: california department of Water Resources (2009). NOTEs: The total (8.3 million acre-feet) excludes conveyance losses and active groundwater recharge. Water for landscaping uses include residential exterior, large landscapes (e.g., parks, golf courses, cemeteries), and a portion of commercial and industrial water use. value, because of high potential for revenue and job losses with cutbacks, but it accounts for only about 6 percent of total urban use. Preventing shutdowns of chip manufacturing and other water-intensive industries was an important impetus of the emergency drought water bank that the state established during the prolonged drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s (California Urban Water Agencies 1991). The value of water and the costs of cutbacks, while substantial, is harder to measure in most other urban uses. Water is important for businesses involved with large landscape water uses, e.g., golf courses, as well as for businesses relying on household water use, such as landscaping firms and swimming pool vendors. These businesses often can use less water without losing revenues, although this often requires some changes in the business (e.g., switching from lawn mainte- nance to installing low-water-using gardens). Water shortages primarily generate costs to end users, in terms of either new equipment (e.g., more water-efficient plumbing, which provides similar service while using less water), or inconve- nience (e.g., taking shorter showers, letting lawns go brown, or leaving pools empty). Economists measure these noncommercial values of urban water in terms Industrial (6%) Commercial (13%) Energy (2%) Residential, interior (32%) Residential, exterior (37%) Large landscape (10%)