Abstract
Garden irrigation is a significant and variable household water end‑use, while groundwater abstraction may be a notable supplementary water source available in some serviced residential areas. Residential groundwater is abstracted by means of garden boreholes or well points and – in the study area – abstracted groundwater is typically used for garden irrigation. The volume irrigated per event is a function of event duration, frequency of application and flow rate, which in turn are dependent on numerous factors that vary by source – including water availability, pressure and price. The temperature variation of groundwater abstraction pipes at residential properties was recorded and analysed as part of this study in order to estimate values for three model inputs, namely, pumping event duration, irrigation frequency, and flow rate. This research incorporates a basic end‑use model for garden irrigation, with inputs derived from the case study in Cape Town, South Africa. The model was subsequently used to stochastically evaluate garden irrigation. Over an 11-d period, 68 garden irrigation events were identified in the sample group of 10 residential properties. The average garden irrigation event duration was 2 h 16 min and the average daily garden irrigation event volume was 1.39 m3.
Highlights
Residential water consumption is typically categorised into indoor end-uses and outdoor end-uses
Howe and Linaweaver (1967), in an early study of residential water demand, reported on the inelastic nature of indoor water use versus the elastic nature of outdoor use, meaning that outdoor use was found to be more sensitive to a change in inputs than indoor use
It is unsurprising that outdoor use is the primary target during water restrictions, with earlier studies reporting on reduced water use during water restrictions, mainly due to reduced outdoor use (Jacobs et al, 2007)
Summary
Residential water consumption is typically categorised into indoor end-uses and outdoor end-uses. Howe and Linaweaver (1967), in an early study of residential water demand, reported on the inelastic nature of indoor water use versus the elastic nature of outdoor use, meaning that outdoor use was found to be more sensitive to a change in inputs than indoor use. Jacobs and Haarhoff (2007) used elasticity and a sensitivity parameter to identify pan evaporation, an irrigation factor, lawn surface area (lawn size) and the vegetation crop factor (lawn grass genotype) as the most notable parameters when modelling outdoor water use. Various parameters describing outdoor use have received attention as part of earlier work, including garden irrigation (Beal et al, 2011), lawn size (Runfola et al, 2013), swimming pools (Fisher-Jeffes et al, 2015), and water use from the outside tap (Makwiza and Jacobs, 2017). It is unsurprising that outdoor use is the primary target during water restrictions, with earlier studies reporting on reduced water use during water restrictions, mainly due to reduced outdoor use (Jacobs et al, 2007)
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