Analytical optimization of demand management strategies across all urban water use sectors

Abstract

An effective urban water demand management program can greatly influence both peak and average demand and therefore long-term water supply and infrastructure planning. Although a theoretical framework for evaluating residential indoor demand management has been well established, little has been done to evaluate other water use sectors such as residential irrigation in a compatible manner for integrating these results into an overall solution. This paper presents a systematic procedure to evaluate the optimal blend of single family residential irrigation demand management strategies to achieve a specified goal based on performance functions derived from parcel level tax assessor's data linked to customer level monthly water billing data. This framework is then generalized to apply to any urban water sector, as exponential functions can be fit to all resulting cumulative water savings functions. Two alternative formulations are presented: maximize net benefits, or minimize total costs subject to satisfying a target water savings. Explicit analytical solutions are presented for both formulations based on appropriate exponential best fits of performance functions. A direct result of this solution is the dual variable which represents the marginal cost of water saved at a specified target water savings goal. A case study of 16,303 single family irrigators in Gainesville Regional Utilities utilizing high quality tax assessor and monthly billing data along with parcel level GIS data provide an illustrative example of these techniques. Spatial clustering of targeted homes can be easily performed in GIS to identify priority demand management areas.

Impact of Homeowner Association (HOA) landscaping guidelines on residential water use

“…Given evidence of declining household water consumption associated with reduced irrigated outdoor vegetation there remains significant potential for reducing outdoor water use through municipal regulation and neighborhood governance of landscaping [ Friedman et al ., ; Suero et al ., ; Karpiscak et al ., ; DeOreo and Mayer , ; Mansur and Olmstead , ]. A widely used form of municipal regulation does not focus on vegetation per se but rather on the block rate price structure for water [ Billings and Day , ].…”

Use of High‐Frequency Data to Detect Household Leaks as Event Outliers

“…At the same time as the early work by Buchberger and colleagues in the 1990s, DeOreo et al () developed a bottom‐up, end‐use approach with measured water use data for 16 homes in Boulder, Colo., at 10 s intervals for 21 days. The focus of that research was water conservation, in which an end‐use inventory forms a critical part of the study as the end uses are the decision variables for finding the optimal blend of investments in water conservation (Friedman et al , Morales et al ). Software was developed that could estimate the type of end use as shown in Figure .…”

Towards a sustainable city: planning the fulfilment of urban fresh water needs of Depok in both dry and rainy seasons

“…The larger population will increase demand for freshwater, so the government must be ready to fulfil the need for fresh water of the population. Thus, review of the analysed calculation for freshwater requirements can be a consideration in planning the provision of fresh water (Friedman et al 2014). Such a review should consider the characteristics of Depok itself.…”