title: Urban water - a new frontier in isotope hydrology.
abstract: Isotope hydrology has focused largely on landscapes away from densely inhabited regions. In coming decades, it will become increasingly more important to focus on water supplies and dynamics within urban systems. Stable isotope analyses provide important information to water managers within large cities, particularly in arid regions where evaporative histories of water sources, vulnerabilities, and reliabilities of the water supplies can be major issues. Here the spatial and vertical understanding of water supporting urban systems that comes from stable isotope analyses can serve as a useful management tool. We explore this research frontier using the coupled natural-human landscape of the Salt Lake Valley, USA, with its greater than one million inhabitants. We first provide data on the stable isotope ratios of the hydrologic system's primary components: precipitation, incoming surface waters, and terminus waters in this closed basin. We then explore the spatial and temporal patterns of drinking waters within the urban landscape and the new opportunities to better link isotope ratio data with short- and long-term management interests of water managers.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Biology , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ehleringer
authors.affiliation: a Department of Biology , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
authors.forename: Janet E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Barnette
authors.affiliation: b Department of Geology and Geophysics , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
authors.forename: Yusuf
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jameel
authors.affiliation: a Department of Biology , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
authors.forename: Brett J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Tipple
authors.affiliation: b Department of Geology and Geophysics , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
authors.forename: Gabriel J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Bowen
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D003903:Deuterium / Q000032:analysis*; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D062070:Hydrology; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D014589:Utah
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes; D003903:Deuterium
keywords: Hydrogen-2; Salt Lake Valley; isotope hydrology; oxygen-18; tap water; urban water isotopes