Cities in drought prone regions of the world such as South East Australia are faced with escalating water scarcity and security challenges. Here we use 72 years of urban water consumption data from Melbourne, Australia, a city that recently overcame a 12 year "Millennium Drought", to evaluate (1) the relative importance of climatic and anthropogenic drivers of urban water demand (using wavelet-based approaches) and (2) the relative contribution of various water saving strategies to demand reduction during the Millennium Drought. Our analysis points to conservation as a dominant driver of urban water savings (69%), followed by nonrevenue water reduction (e.g., reduced meter error and leaks in the potable distribution system; 29%), and potable substitution with alternative sources like rain or recycled water (3%). Per-capita consumption exhibited both climatic and anthropogenic signatures, with rainfall and temperature explaining approximately 55% of the variance. Anthropogenic controls were also strong (up to 45% variance explained). These controls were nonstationary and frequency-specific, with conservation measures like outdoor water restrictions impacting seasonal water use and technological innovation/changing social norms impacting lower frequency (baseline) use. The above-noted nonstationarity implies that wavelets, which do not assume stationarity, show promise for use in future predictive models of demand.
Thin films of CIGS nanoparticles interdigited with polymers have been fabricated through a cost-effective nonvacuum film deposition process called layer-by-layer (LbL) nanoassembly. CIGS nanoparticles synthesized by heating copper chloride, indium chloride, gallium chloride, and selenium in oleylamine were dispersed in water, and desired surface charges were obtained through pH regulation and by coating the particles with polystyrene sulfonate (PSS). Raising the pH of the nanoparticle dispersion reduced the zeta-potential from+61 mV at pH 7 to−51 mV at pH 10.5. Coating the CIGS nanoparticles with PSS (CIGS-PSS) produced a stable dispersion in water with−56.9 mV zeta-potential. Thin films of oppositely charged CIGS nanoparticles (CIGS/CIGS), CIGS nanoparticles and PSS (CIGS/PSS), and PSS-coated CIGS nanoparticles and polyethylenimine (CIGS-PSS/PEI) were constructed through the LbL nanoassembly. Film thickness and resistivity of each bilayer of the films were measured, and photoelectric properties of the films were studied for solar cell applications. Solar cell devices fabricated with a 219 nm CIGS film, when illuminated by 50 W light-source, produced 0.7 V open circuit voltage and 0.3 mA/cm2short circuit current density.
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