Southern Nevada (SNV) is a
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
and the southern portion of the U.S. state of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
which includes the
Las Vegas Valley
The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area i ...
. It also includes the areas in and around
Pahrump and
Pioche.
Tonopah and
Hawthorne are sometimes also referred to as part of Southern Nevada, but all organizations based in the Las Vegas area, such as the Southern Nevada Health District, effectively limit the term to the Las Vegas Valley.
Geographically, parts of Southern Nevada are within the
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...
. The population of the region, as measured by the 2000 U.S. Census, is 1,432,004, though the Las Vegas Valley has now increased to over 2,000,000 itself. Over time and influenced by
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
s in Southern Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Las Vegas's and Southern Nevada’s
water security.
Economy
The primary drivers of the Southern Nevada economy have been the confluence of