Draft 2025 Urban Water Management Plan

2025 Orange County Water Demand Projection Model

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Historical

Projected

Historical

Projected

Figure ES-2: Demographic Parameters

While increasing density, decreasing persons per household, and increasing prices are expected to moderate demand, they do not fully offset growth in multifamily driver units. Table ES-4 shows the slow growth trend out to 2050 for all of Orange County.

Table ES-4: Orange County Forecast

Forecast Year

2025

2030

2035

2040

2045

2050

Single-family Demand (AFY)

196,682

189,600

189,594

190,010

189,146

188,368

Multifamily Demand (AFY)

91,462

93,631

95,823

97,339

97,976

98,583

Irrigation Demand (AFY)

88,837

86,849

86,849

86,966

86,849

86,849

CII Demand (AFY)

82,873

87,224

89,565

91,928

93,866

95,492

Other Demands (AFY)

28,194

28,007

28,314

28,613

28,735

28,831

Total Demand (AFY)

488,049

485,312

490,145

494,856

496,572

498,124

Single-family demand remains relatively flat due to limited growth in single-family housing units, and multifamily demands are forecasted to increase steadily, driven by rising multifamily housing development. Irrigation demand is expected to remain flat, and other uses (e.g., fire flows, construction) are projected as a fixed percentage of total use. Under expected future conditions, total Orange County demand is projected to remain relatively stable through 2050.

Alternative Forecasts and UWMP Scenarios

As part of this model, alternative demand forecasts were developed to evaluate the impacts of climate change and long-term water rate increases on future water use in Orange County. Using CMIP6 climate models and downscaled LOCA2 data from CalAdapt, the model applied temperature and precipitation deltas to historical weather patterns across four Flume-defined microclimate quadrants. These projections

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Appendix G - 15

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