Socioeconomic analysis of domestic water end-use consumption in the Federal District, Brazil

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between domestic water consumption and dwelling typology, household income and number of occupants. It describes the data and methods used to estimate domestic water consumption and related end-uses for the different household income and residential building typologies of the Federal District, Brazil. To verify the consistency of estimated water end-use data acquired at a fixture-appliance level with metered consumption at the dwelling level, covariance error models were built. The error models were also used in the regularization of the regression of water consumption over socioeconomic variables, using a generalized least-squares approach. Based on linear regression using log-transformed data, this study validates and presents an indoor and outdoor domestic water consumption model. Findings suggest that dwelling characteristics, number of residents, and household income affect both indoor and outdoor water consumption patterns and, therefore, should be considered for adequate water demand predictions, rainwater harvesting, and water reuse system design dimensioning and quantifying potential water savings for different water conservation measures.