WATER DEMAND BY RETAIL AND SERVICE BUSINESS
 ESTABLISHMENTS, DADE AND MONROE
 COUNTIES, FLORIDA

 GARY D. LYNNE, WILLIAM G. LUPPOLD, AND CLYDE KIKER

 INTRODUCTION

 Water is a basic good which has no complete substitute. Be-
 cause of this characteristic, an uninterrupted supply of fresh
 water is an important factor in a growing economy. Florida is
 fortunate in its abundance of fresh water resources. In fact, the
 only water problem faced in Florida's early development was one
 of over-abundance [8, p. 145]. In more recent years, however,
 shortages have developed in some areas. Temporary water use
 restrictions were placed on users in southeast Florida in May
 1971 [27, p. 1]. Water availability has also been a problem in
 the southwest Florida area [23].
 The probability of severe shortages in future years is in-
 creased by the expanding population. It is expected that South-
 east Florida,' for example, will experience a 76 percent increase
 over the 1974 population of 2.7 million by the year 2000 [30, p.
 10]. Water use in Florida is increasing at a rate greater than
 for the rest of the United States, and this pattern is expected to
 continue [6, p. 9]. Conflicts among agricultural, industrial, resi-
 dential, commercial, and "natural" uses will continue to arise as
 the population expands.
 The Florida Water Resources Act of 1972 provides the frame-
 work in which management and allocation problems are to be
 resolved [9]. The entities given authority to develop allocation
 and management policies are five water management districts.
 These districts have developed many ideas and tools, largely
 technical in nature, for use in water management. Consider the
 case of the South Florida Water Management District." Some
 of the tools used by that district include the concept of a water
 budget [26, p. 5], an early warning system for droughts [27,

 1Defined as Broward, Dade, Martin, Monroe, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie
 counties.
 "Other districts in the state are the Northwest, St. Johns, Suwannee,
 and Southwest. The South Florida Water Management District includes
 all or parts of Broward, Collier, Dade, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Lee,
 Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie
 counties.