Residential Water Use Research Articles

Are Economic Tools Useful to Manage Residential Water Demand? A Review of Old Issues and Emerging Topics

The analysis of residential water demand has long attracted attention from researchers. However, the central topics at issue have evolved considerably, transitioning from estimating price and income elasticities to using experimental techniques that assess how to motivate households towards water conservation. In this literature review, we contribute to the existing literature by giving an updated overview of the state of the art in the central topics regarding residential water demand. Moreover, we present some interesting lines of research to be explored in the future. Thus, we first review some traditional key drivers of residential water demand. Second, we discuss the role of public policies when managing residential water demand, paying special attention to pricing tools. Next, we briefly review some of the methodological issues with respect to traditional econometrics and discuss related modeling. We then discuss the role of experimental designs and nudging on residential water use. Finally, we include a summary of the main literature findings, and close the discussion introducing some emerging and promising research topics.

Factors influencing water conservation behaviour amongst low-income communities in South Africa

While economic incentives, technical developments, and government policies and regulations can all contribute to reduce residential water use, householders, on the other hand, can also help lessen overall water demands by using less water. In this study, we look at how to modify people's behaviour to conserve water at home. Using the theory of reasoned action which suggest human behaviour is a construct of subjective norms, and attitude, this study aimed to identify the factors that influences water conservation behaviour in low-income households in South Africa South Africa. The study focused on the Waterloo Township, which is located north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. This study followed a positive paradigm and employed a descriptive cross-sectional research design and a quantitative survey design with a sample of (n=305). Both descriptive and inferential analysis was used to analyze and present the data. Path analysis using regression coefficient was performed to establish the factors that predict water conservation behaviour. The results suggest that although the knowledge of water conservation was high among the respondents, there was however a negative gap difference (-20.3) between their knowledge (94.4%) and actual behaviour (74.1%) towards water saving techniques. The regression analysis conducted revealed that subject norms were the strongest predictor towards water conservation intentions in the Waterloo LCH. This conclusively suggest that the conceptualisation of water conservation behaviour as a function of attitude and subjective norm may be appropriate in the context of the low-cost housing areas within South Africa.

A quantitative study on the water-related energy use in the urban water system of Shenzhen

A comprehensive understanding of the nexus between urban water and energy is vital for economic development and human survival. Although extensive studies have been conducted on urban water–energy nexus, the nexus is site-specific and governed by many factors. Here, we analyzed water-related energy intensity for residential purpose based on statistical data and family surveys in Shenzhen, which is one of the world's fastest urbanizing megacities facing water and energy scarcity. Then household water and energy use and their main influencing factors were explored. Water-related energy intensity was calculated in kWh/m3 as follows: source water transfer (0.344), tap water production (0.217), tap water delivery (0.464), residential water use (7.43), wastewater treatment (0.20), and wastewater reuse (0.083). Results show that there's a strong nexus between water and energy in the urban water system. Household water use is mainly affected by family income (r = 0.202, p = 0.002), whereas household electricity use is mainly affected by education level (r = 0.191, p = 0.004). With the projected increases in family size, family income and education level, water and energy supply in Shenzhen are going to face severe challenges.

Landscape Irrigation and Water Conservation in Urban Areas: An Analysis of Information-based Strategies

Outdoor water use, especially for lawn and landscaping irrigation, accounts for a substantial proportion of residential water use and often peaks during summer months. Understanding how to reduce outdoor water use can play a critical role in balancing the increasing demand for and subsequent protection of water resources. This study aims to find out if information-based strategies can be effective in reducing homeowners’ water use as well as identifying the key determinants that can enhance water conservation campaigns. Using online survey data from 2077 randomly selected urban homeowners with home lawns in a relatively water-rich state, we found that social norm-based information is generally more effective to promote household water conservation behavior than education information. Moreover, the results showed that the households’ water-saving actions, lawn watering knowledge, awareness for local water scarcity, attitudes toward water conservation, socio-demographics, and landscape characteristics all play a role in determining household water conservation intention.

What Are the Most Effective Neighborhood Ranges for Social Comparison to Improve Water Use Efficiency?

It is commonly recognized in the field of water demand management that social comparison of water usage among people with a similar background is an effective measure to promote water efficiency. Many studies have used “neighborhood” to represent group similarity, but it is unclear how much geographic proximity is appropriate for defining a neighborhood. Therefore, the aim of this study is to clarify what neighborhood range is the most effective for promoting residential water use efficiency. We conducted a field experiment on social comparison feedback using two neighborhood ranges: narrow (condominium complex level) and wide (prefecture level), and analyzed changes in the water usage of 114 households residing in a condominium in the Tokyo metropolitan area, based on daily household water consumption data and an emoticon-based feedback system. As a result of classification of water consumption trend patterns using the K-means clustering method, it was suggested that those with low-consumption reduced their consumption as a result of the intervention, irrespective of neighborhood range. Despite the limited amount of data, the results provide insights into designing and implementing more effective feedback methods outside the US and European regions, especially in the context of residential water efficiency.

Florida H2OSAV Insights: Home Water Use in Osceola County

This fact sheet provides current, basic information about residential water use in Osceola County, Florida. Written by Nick Taylor, Kaitlin Robb Price, Bradley Spatz, Parker Johnson, and Pierce Jones, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, November 2021.

Double dam coordination model based on Lake Mead and Lake Powell

With climate change, water supply from dams and reservoirs is decreasing in many regions. For centuries, people have built dams on rivers and streams to hold back water, and reservoirs have been built as a means of managing water supply. In this paper, we established a double-dam coordination and cooperation model. We abstracted the lake into a cuboid, and established a physical model of hydropower supply and demand based on the water levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Next, we established a hydropower conversion rate model, taking into account The cooperation between the power stations has established a short-term optimal scheduling mathematical model of the hydropower system. Through the constraints, we have reached the relationship between the hydropower conversion efficiency and the lake water level. We established a short-term optimal scheduling model for hydropower systems, which addresses t he competing interests of general agricultural, industrial residential water use and water availability for water power and electricity production. The electric energy is the largest and the unification of the rules that the electric energy is the largest and the water consumption is the smallest is realized. Combined with the water consumption constraints of the target power station, the water balance constraints of the reservoirs of each hydropower station, and the reservoir capacity constraints, the water level height reduction model is established. On the basis of the previous model, we established an optimization model based on particle swarm optimization, and brought it into matlab for simulation through particle swarm optimization, and calculated the hydropower conversion efficiency of Lake Mead and Lake Powell with the height of the water level under constraints.

Turbocharging Social Comparison Information: Experimental Evidence on Residential Energy and Water Use

Turbocharging Social Comparison Information: Experimental Evidence on Residential Energy and Water Use

Water permits trading framework for urban water demand management based on smart metering

Water rights trading is commonly used as a means of water resources reallocation between different water use sectors or between different end-users within the same sector. No studies, however, were reported on water rights trading from residential water use to other sectors. The primary reasons include the ambiguous definition of residents’ water rights and lack of real-time information about water consumption. This study presents a domestic-industrial water permits trading framework for urban water demand management. The framework is applied to the case study of Dalian demonstrating its feasibility theoretically and technologically from the perspective of the whole city and typical demonstration areas. The finding obtained shows that the tradable water volume accounts for 13.72% of the total residential water use, brings a profit of 91.05 million yuan to the residents, and saves 56.67 million yuan of water resources costs for industry users. The increase in water prices for consumption through tiered pricing can raise the tradable volume to 16.10%. Furthermore, a trading platform based on WeChat is developed to completely materialize the entire water permits trading process according to the real-time water consumption data collected from smart water meters. This study shows that the water permits trading between urban domestic-industrial sectors is an effective means of redistributing urban water resources to improve economic benefits while ensuring urban water supply security.

Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Residential Water Use Behavior in Japan

To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic on residential water use behavior in Japan, we conducted a web-based survey of 1310 people throughout Japan in March 2021, one year after the initial spread of coronavirus. The survey was designed to provide an average picture of Japan. The survey revealed that the time respondents spent at home increased during the pandemic for both men and women in all age groups by an average of 1 h, an increase of 9%. Changes in water use behavior increased almost in proportion to the increase in time spent at home, except for the frequency of defecation, which was limited to once a day. The amount of time spent in the washroom increased by 13%, an increase of more than 1.4 times the increase in the amount of time spent at home. The additional 40% increase could be considered an effect of the awareness of disease prevention. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to end in the near future. In Japan, the pandemic has led to a strong push for the reform of work styles. Therefore, even in a post-coronavirus-pandemic society, changes in work styles may normalize the increased time spent at home and the proportional increase in water use. However, because the change in water use behavior caused by quarantine awareness is a result of the fear of coronavirus infection, it is possible that water use will gradually return to pre-pandemic levels once the source of the fear is removed. To reflect the changes in water use behavior in the design of facilities in the post-coronavirus-pandemic society, it is necessary to continue this survey even once the pandemic has ended.

Understanding the Effect of Household Rainwater Tanks on Hourly Residential Water Use

AbstractA lack of understanding surrounding the interaction between residential water use and household rainwater tanks (RWT) restricts the ability to assess the performance of these systems accura...

Residential water conservation during drought: Experimental evidence from three behavioral interventions

This paper deploys a framed field experiment and uses high-frequency data to evaluate the short- and long-run effects of three behavioral interventions on residential water use during extreme drought. Our study of the effects of Home Water Reports (HWRs) on hourly water use yields three main results. First, even when layered on top of a 25% drought conservation mandate, HWRs led to conservation effects of 4 to 5%. Second, across three variants of HWRs, the profile of water conservation is similar, suggesting that households did not respond to the messaging or recommendations contained in the HWRs. Third, the water conservation effect of all interventions dissipated five months after the intervention ended. In our setting, these behavioral interventions align with utility incentives to achieve immediate but temporary water conservation in response to drought.

Heterogeneity and Temporal Stability of Residential Water Use Responsiveness to Price Change

Many papers estimate the price elasticity of water demand. However, heterogeneity and temporal variation of price elasticity of residential water use are still unclear. We analyze these issues by applying the latent class analysis and t-test using disaggregated data of approximately 30,000 households recorded over five years: Two years before and three years after a tariff revision. As a result, the households are divided into three (heterogeneous) groups: About 5% of them responded to the price change sensitively, 40–60% slightly, and 35–55% not at all. Households with high water use prior to the revision had higher price elasticity. In addition, the price elasticity in the first and third years after the revision was the same.

Residential Water Meters as Edge Computing Nodes: Disaggregating End Uses and Creating Actionable Information at the Edge.

We present a new, open source, computationally capable datalogger for collecting and analyzing high temporal resolution residential water use data. Using this device, execution of water end use disaggregation algorithms or other data analytics can be performed directly on existing, analog residential water meters without disrupting their operation, effectively transforming existing water meters into smart, edge computing devices. Computation of water use summaries and classified water end use events directly on the meter minimizes data transmission requirements, reduces requirements for centralized data storage and processing, and reduces latency between data collection and generation of decision-relevant information. The datalogger couples an Arduino microcontroller board for data acquisition with a Raspberry Pi computer that serves as a computational resource. The computational node was developed and calibrated at the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) and was deployed for testing on the water meter for a single-family residential home in Providence City, UT, USA. Results from field deployments are presented to demonstrate the data collection accuracy, computational functionality, power requirements, communication capabilities, and applicability of the system. The computational node’s hardware design and software are open source, available for potential reuse, and can be adapted to specific research needs.

Florida H2OSAV Insights: Home Water Use in Orange County

This fact sheet provides current, basic information about residential water use in Orange County. Written by Nick Taylor, Kaitlin Olander Robb Price, Bradley Spatz, Parker Johnson, and Pierce Jones, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, June 2021.

An open source cyberinfrastructure for collecting, processing, storing and accessing high temporal resolution residential water use data

Collecting and managing high temporal resolution residential water use data is challenging due to cost and technical requirements associated with the volume and velocity of data collected. We developed an open-source, modular, generalized architecture called Cyberinfrastructure for Intelligent Water Supply (CIWS) to automate the process from data collection to analysis and presentation of high temporal residential water use data. A prototype implementation was built using existing open-source technologies, including smart meters, databases, and services. Two case studies were selected to test functionalities of CIWS, including push and pull data models within single family and multi-unit residential contexts, respectively. CIWS was tested for scalability and performance within our design constraints and proved to be effective within both case studies. All CIWS elements and the case study data described are freely available for re-use.

Water heating energy use reductions from EPA WaterSense lavatory plumbing fittings

Hot water savings from water-efficient lavatory fittings lead to reductions in water heating energy consumption, and ultimately to decreases in carbon emissions. This paper characterizes existing and proposed approaches used to estimate hot water savings and carbon emissions reductions stemming from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense program. Also described are refinements that improve the accuracy of residential hot water use percentage estimates of lavatory fittings. The authors conclude that (1) hot water percentages for showers and faucets calculated using up-to-date, publicly available national data are consistent with those found by regional studies and household-level models of water use; (2) the accuracy of heating energy savings estimates attributable to WaterSense-labeled lavatory products, as well as associated emissions reductions, can be refined by modifying the existing energy factor/uniform energy factor (EF/UEF)-based estimation approach with available data. The refined approach accounts for more nuanced conditions than the EF/UED-based approach but depends on data not always available; and (3) the approaches described and intermediate outputs can be generalized for other water conservation programs or estimating purposes.

Characterization of Municipal Water Uses in the Contiguous United States

AbstractThis study investigates municipal water use patterns across the Contiguous United States (CONUS). The objectives of this study are to explore temporal trends in water use, improve characterization of indoor and outdoor uses, and improve characterization of commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) water use in cities across the CONUS. A comprehensive survey was conducted to compile monthly water use data from 126 municipalities for the period 2005–2017 with specific information about residential and CII water use categories. Changes in liters per capita per day and the CII to Residential water use ratio were related to climatic, urban‐geologic and socio‐economic variables. Results indicate an overall decreasing trend in municipal water uses with higher reductions achieved in residential sector. Both residential and CII water use exhibit high seasonality over an average year. The CII to Residential ratio increases with city population and is highest in cities in the Northeast Census region. Cities in South and West Census regions have high municipal water uses and highest reductions in annual per capita‐day water use. Cities in arid climate regions have the highest water uses, compared to other cities, due to landscape irrigation. April precipitation, annual vapor pressure deficit, number of employees in the manufacturing (or, other services except public administration) sector, total percentage of houses built before 1950 and total percentage of single‐family houses explain much of the variation in CII to Residential water use ratio across the CONUS. This study guides improved characterization of municipal water uses and water demand management strategies.

Influence of Community Factors on Water Saving in a Mega City after Implementing the Progressive Price Schemes

A progressive price scheme (PPS) has been implemented in Shanghai since 2013 in consideration of residents’ ability to pay, and charges are based on the actual water consumption of the residents, in an effort to balance the rational allocation of water resources and the goal of saving water between rich and poor families. In the current work, the effect of the PPS for water use was evaluated based on the water use of 6661 households from 14 communities in Shanghai. It was found that the PPS did not reduce household water consumption when comparing the water consumption per household both before and after the implementation of the PPS policy. To investigate the weakness of the PPS, a principal component analysis (PCA) and a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were conducted to access the relationships between mean household water use and community factors such as housing price, management fees, and the number of parking sites. Moreover, a significant inverted U-shaped curve between housing price and water use was found, which demonstrates that rental households shared by several tenants were the main consumers of residential water, and they were not sensitive to the water price improvement in the PPS due to sharing water prices. Therefore, a proposal was made in this work to increase the proportion of water fee expenditure in the total household income and to use 3% as the benchmark for water affordability. Our results provided a new picture of residential water use in big cities and a method for saving and balancing urban water resources.

Dynamic analysis of residential and enterprise water supply and leakage efficiencies.

With per capita water resources at only around a quarter of the world average, China's water resources are limited and unevenly distributed. Past research on water resource utilization has mainly focused on industrial water use (agriculture and industry), water plant ownership efficiencies (private or public operation), or water resources and economic production; however, there have been few studies focused on water supply livelihood. Therefore, this paper considered both industrial production water services, non-production water services (public sector and residential water use), and water leakage losses, which is a water supply problem seldom mentioned in other studies. An undesirable directional distance function (DDF) dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was employed for the dynamic analysis as it was able to deal with both desirable and undesirable outputs at the same time. The model examined collected water supply and water leak efficiency data from 30 Chinese provinces/municipalities from 2007 to 2018, from which it was found that (1) Beijing, Gansu, Guangdong, and Ningxia had efficient water supply and water leak losses from 2007 to 2018 and the most improved province was Jiangxi; (2) the eastern provinces, in general, had better water efficiencies and the central and western provinces needed greater improvements; and (3) the lowest water leakage loss efficiencies were in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, and Heilongjiang, all of which required significant improvements.