Factors affecting the variability of household water use in Melbourne, Australia

Rathnayaka, K.; Maheepala, Shiroma; Nawarathna, Bandara; George, Biju; Malano, Hector; Arora, Meenakshi; Roberts, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.08.012

Cited by 40 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Water demand can considerably vary over the year [28]. Flow velocities in the systems vary accordingly depending on the pipe diameter and range from a maximum of 2.5 m/s to approximately 0.3 m/s.…”

Section: Potable Water Supply Design and Hybrid Supply Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Hybrid Water Supply on the Centralised Water System

Sitzenfrei

Zischg

Sitzmann

et al. 2017

Water

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Traditional (technical) concepts to ensure a reliable water supply, a safe handling of wastewater and flood protection are increasingly criticised as outdated and unsustainable. These so-called centralised urban water systems are further maladapted to upcoming challenges because of their long lifespan in combination with their short-sighted planning and design. A combination of (existing) centralised and decentralised infrastructure is expected to be more reliable and sustainable. However, the impact of increasing implementation of decentralised technologies on the local technical performance in sewer or water supply networks and the interaction with the urban form has rarely been addressed in the literature. In this work, an approach which couples the UrbanBEATS model for the planning of decentralised strategies together with a water supply modelling approach is developed and applied to a demonstration case. With this novel approach, critical but also favourable areas for such implementations can be identified. For example, low density areas, which have high potential for rainwater harvesting, can result in local water quality problems in the supply network when further reducing usually low pipe velocities in these areas. On the contrary, in high demand areas (e.g., high density urban forms) there is less effect of rainwater harvesting due to the limited available space. In these high density areas, water efficiency measures result in the highest savings in water volume, but do not cause significant problems in the technical performance of the potable water supply network. For a more generalised and case-independent conclusion, further analyses are performed for semi-virtual benchmark networks to answer the question of an appropriate representation of the water distribution system in a computational model for such an analysis. Inappropriate hydraulic model assumptions and characteristics were identified for the stated problem, which have more impact on the assessments than the decentralised measures.

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Section: Potable Water Supply Design and Hybrid Supply Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Hybrid Water Supply on the Centralised Water System

Sitzenfrei

Zischg

Sitzmann

et al. 2017

Water

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“…Rathanayaka et al provide a comprehensive review of the existing models to predict end‐use water demand and approaches to arrive at their estimation . In another study, authors identified the factors affecting spatial and temporal variability in water demand and developed a new stochastic–deterministic approach to predicting water demand . This level of modeling scale is critical in assisting to determine the optimal design scale for decentralized water supply systems.…”

Section: Dimensions Of Hwsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between centralized and decentralized water systems in urban context: A review

et al. 2015

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This study presents a comprehensive review of the literature on implementation of various decentralized water systems along with centralized systems. The review highlights the benefits provided by these systems as well as various challenges posed associated with them. There are complex interactions involved within the water systems in an urban setting that are multidimensional and span over various aspects of water availability, quality, energy use, environmental, legal, economic, and social sectors. Although there are many economic, environmental, and social benefits associated with decentralized systems, there are some hidden challenges that are generally overlooked by planners and managers; these include the spatial integration of such systems, their energy intensity, social, economic, and environmental viability of these systems. Decisions to implement decentralized water systems require decision makers to consider economic, social, and environmental dimensions conjointly through an appropriate multicriteria decision analysis to select the hybrid water supply combination optimal for the given circumstances. The existing studies and tools are unable to address these factors using an integrated approach. So a holistic framework to evaluate and compare various water supply options in terms of energy use, social, economic, and environmental impacts is required to assess such systems in comprehensive manner. WIREs Water 2015, 2:623–634. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1099 This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water

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“…Studies on the variability of household water-use include many environmental, engineering, social, economic and cultural factors (Corbella and Pujol, 2009; Inman and Jeffrey, 2006; Jorgensen et al, 2009; Rathnayaka et al, 2014), which are highly characterized with disparate spatial and temporal traits. Understanding the spatial and temporal patterns of household water-use costs within a complex social and demographic context is important for implementing holistic and integrated water-use management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Household water-use trends may be further influenced by psychological factors, such as trust between consumers and water authority (Jorgensen et al, 2009), and local water conservation culture such as taking shorter showers, turning off the tap water while brushing teeth, and washing only full loads of laundry or dishwasher (Fielding et al, 2012). Another direction of meeting water demand is domestic conservation, for example using more efficient water consumption devices such as efficient laundry machines, showers and toilets (Rathnayaka et al, 2014). Upgrading water-use devices in a large scale however is a big task that involves both economic (payback period) and social (awareness in water conservation and willingness in spending more on the efficient devices) considerations (Piper and Martin, 1997; Millock and Nauges, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociodemographic patterns of household water-use costs in Puerto Rico

Xue

Ghasemizadeh

Padilla

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Variability of household water-use costs across different sociodemographic groups in Puerto Rico is evaluated using census microdata from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS). Multivariate analyses such as Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Factor Analysis (FA) are used to classify, extract and interpret the household water-use costs. The FA results suggest two principal varifactors in explaining the variability of household water-use costs (64% in 2000 and 50% in 2010), which are grouped into a soft coefficient (social, economic and demographic characteristics of household residents, i.e. age, size, income, education) and a hard coefficient (dwelling conditions, i.e. number of rooms, units in the building, building age). The demographic profile of a high water-use household in Puerto Rico tends to be that of renters, people who live in larger or older buildings, people living in metro areas, or those with higher education level and higher income. The findings and discussions from this study will help decision makers to plan holistic and integrated water management to achieve water sustainability.

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Factors affecting the variability of household water use in Melbourne, Australia

Cited by 40 publications

References 17 publications

Impact of Hybrid Water Supply on the Centralised Water System

Impact of Hybrid Water Supply on the Centralised Water System

Interactions between centralized and decentralized water systems in urban context: A review

Sociodemographic patterns of household water-use costs in Puerto Rico

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