Water demand management strategies for water-scarce cities: The case of Spain

Tortajada, Cecilia; González‐Gómez, Francisco; Biswas, Asit K.; Buurman, Joost

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.044

Cited by 76 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…A substantial amount of work and research on WDM has focused on price mechanisms with less focus on non-price mechanisms. It is only recently that WDM strategies are increasingly paying attention to non-price mechanisms (Tortajada et al, 2019). This is partly due to empirical research showing that domestic water consumption is influenced by socio-demographic factors (household size, gender, education level, and attitudinal variables), environmental variables (temperature and precipitation), and household economic variables (income and available technology, i.e.…”

Section: Price and Non-price Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…water-saving plumbing fixtures) (Hanke & de Mare, 1982;Vickers & Markus, 1992;Jorgensen et al, 2009;Kanakoudis & Gonelas, 2014, 2015bShan et al, 2015). Several water utilities are, in fact, making efforts to incorporate behavioural nudges in their WDM strategies Tortajada et al, 2019). The nature of messages delivered by utilities and policymakers for encouraging households to adopt water conservation practices is, therefore, also important (Tortajada et al, 2019).…”

Section: Price and Non-price Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drought response impacts on household water use practices in Cape Town, South Africa

2020

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Cape Town recently endured a record-breaking drought which nearly ended in disaster for the city's water supply. Municipal authorities introduced several measures to curb water demand using both monetary and other incentives, but little is known about how effective these measures were at encouraging people to save water. Previous literature shows no consensus as to which types of measures are most effective for managing residential water demand. Using information obtained through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 individuals living in houses where they paid their water bills, this study provides insights on how respondents interpreted and responded to these mechanisms. Results show that price mechanisms were considered to be ineffective and did not encourage people to save water in their households. Non-price mechanisms were seen as having more impact on respondents, encouraging water conservation behaviour; especially when it comes to household indoor water use activities related to hygiene. While previous studies primarily provide quantitative data to measure the effectiveness of water demand management strategies, this paper adds a qualitative understanding of how and why households' water use practices change in response to these measures.

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Section: Price and Non-price Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Price and Non-price Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought response impacts on household water use practices in Cape Town, South Africa

2020

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“…Daily per capita water consumption of each household was arranged in order of usage, divided into eight equal parts, and applied to each visual. As per capita water consumption is one of the important indicators in the context of water demand management [28,29], we used it for feedback and analysis.…”

Section: Interventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water demand management: Visualising a public good

2020

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Recent studies on water demand management show that providing visual information on water usage along with social comparisons with neighbouring households resulted in more efficient water usage. However, social comparisons can be discomforting for participants, especially in the case of downward or negative evaluations. To avoid this, some studies promote the use of social identity, a social norm approach that avoids comparisons. Past studies using social comparison used infographics, whereas other study types have used only textual (non-graphic) information. Therefore, in this study, we created a visualisation of water usage to highlight the importance of water as a shared resource, that is, as a public good, and feedback over six months according to the participants' water usage. A difference-indifference analysis indicated that the feedback was marginally significant in decreasing water consumption immediately and continuously, especially for the middle and low use households, during the summer months, which is a period of perceived water shortage. From the questionnaire survey, we found that households felt that they determined their water usage based on their preference and were satisfied with the outcome.

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“…Urban water-saving projects can improve water-use efficiency and reduce water waste in various ways; for example, economic incentives (e.g., water pricing), technical improvements (e.g., water-saving household appliances), or regulations can increase domestic water savings [25]. Both the Chinese and global experiences have shown that there is a positive effect of water-saving measures on urban water consumption reduction [26][27][28]. However, water-saving measures only restrain the growth rate of water consumption; the total water consumption is still increasing as the population and economy continue to grow [29][30][31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Water-Saving Society Policy on Water Consumption in the Cities of China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Zhao

2020

IJERPH

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The increased demand for water resources due to urban population and economic growth has worsened the urban water crisis. In order to address this issue, a policy of “developing a water-saving society” (namely, water-saving society policy) has been implemented in some Chinese cities. This study takes 285 cities at the prefecture level and above as the sample and uses the propensity score matching (PSM) method to analyze the effect of China’s urban water-saving society policy on the reduction of water consumption per CNY 10,000 gross domestic product (GDP) from 2005 to 2017. The results show that the water-saving society policy significantly (p < 0.01) reduced water consumption in the study period; however, the effects differed between cities with different water resource endowments, economic development level, and urban scale. Specifically, there was a positive water consumption reduction effect in cities in humid areas, with low economic development, or of large scale, while the effect was limited in cities in arid areas, with high economic development, or of small scale. Therefore, for areas where water resource supply is insufficient, water-saving policy should be designed and implemented suiting local conditions, and it is also necessary to explore more water sources.

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Water demand management strategies for water-scarce cities: The case of Spain

Cited by 76 publications

References 29 publications

Drought response impacts on household water use practices in Cape Town, South Africa

Drought response impacts on household water use practices in Cape Town, South Africa

Water demand management: Visualising a public good

Effect of Water-Saving Society Policy on Water Consumption in the Cities of China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

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