Cities and water quality

We review economic research that focuses on topics connecting surface and drinking water quality and issues in urban economics. We organize our discussion around the major phases of the water resource and urban system relationship. First, we review work concerned with how urban water systems in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries served primarily as a means of production in urban centers. We then discuss the regulation of surface and drinking water in modern times, which arose as cities transitioned from being centers of production to centers of consumption. We also examine water as an amenity in the modern consumer city. We close by offering thoughts on future policy challenges and research needs and opportunities.