CITYLAB: "It's Time to Say Goodbye to the Front Lawn"

Gwynn Guilford also includes maps with projected water use and drought areas. Florida residents are expected to use 76–100 gallons by 2030 EACH DAY. Here is an excerpt on an effort in California to get residents to dig up their front lawns of grass:

     Los Angeles and 25 other southern California cities are paying their residents up to $6,000 to dig up their lawns and put in fake turf and woodchips—part of a bid to help meet the state’s mandatory reduction in water use issued in April. That comes out to about two dollars per square foot of lawn replaced.
     It’s easy to see why: During California’s summer dry season, 50-80 percent of residential water consumption comes from lawn care and other outdoor uses [emphasis added], reports the Los Angeles Times.
     So far, the lawn replacement program has proven wildly popular. Since governor Jerry Brown’s executive order to cut urban water use, weekly lawn replacement applications more than tripled. The new plan adds another $350 million for rebates granted by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which serves about 19 million people. Residents exhausted the original $100-million budget earlier this month.