Publication Highlight: Alternative household water affordability metrics using water bill delinquency behavior

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In a special edition of Environmental Research Letters, “Focus on Next Generation of Water Economics,” authors Jenny Skerker, Aniket Verma, Dr. Morgan Edwards, Dr. Benjamin Rachunok, and Dr. Sarah Fletcher use household water billing data from Santa Cruz, CA to quantify and compare affordability metrics based on water bill delinquencies. They compare these metrics to commonly used affordability ratios, which express water bills as a fraction of income and are the most commonly used affordability ratios. Their findings suggest that higher delinquency frequency and duration are linked to proxies for low wealth, and that there may be benefits of using multiple household-level affordability metrics to understand the role affordability plays in household water security.

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