Complex Adaptive Systems Framework to Assess Supply-Side and Demand-Side Management for Urban Water Resources

Kanta, Lufthansa; Zechman, Emily M.

doi:10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000301

Cited by 74 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This literature has shown the importance of personal beliefs [Fielding et al, 2012], which in turn can be influenced informally through social networks [Athanasiadis, 2005;Kanta and Zechman, 2014], as well as the role of economic incentives such as water pricing [Olmstead and Stavins, 2009]. In contrast to this approach, we are more interested in the general factors that affect the change in the overall water supply regime to favor inclusion of water conservation policies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water conservation and hydrological transitions in cities in the United States

Hornberger

Hess

Gilligan

2015

Water Resources Research

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Cities across the world have had to diversify and expand their water supply systems in response to demand growth, groundwater depletion and pollution, and instability and inadequacy of regional surface freshwater sources. In the U.S., these problems plague not only the arid Western cities but increasingly also cities in the Eastern portions of the country. Although cities continue to seek out new sources of water via Promethean projects of long-distance supply systems, desalinization plants, and the recharge of aquifers with surface water, they also pursue water conservation because of its low cost and other benefits. We examine water conservation as a complex sociotechnical system comprising interactions of political, sociodemographic, economic, and hydroclimatological factors. We provide quantitative data on the factors that affect more and less advanced transitions in water conservation regimes, and we show that water stress and other hydrological data can only partially predict the transition. We also provide qualitative case studies to identify institutional and political barriers to more advanced water conservation regimes. This interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach typifies the need for knowledge that informs hydrologists about how their research may or may not be adopted by decision-makers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water conservation and hydrological transitions in cities in the United States

Hornberger

Hess

Gilligan

2015

Water Resources Research

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“…The framework was applied to simulate alternative demand-side management strategies, including outdoor watering restrictions, a rainwater harvesting rebate program, and a high-density land-use change policy [32]. Kanta and Zechman [10] extended this framework to explore both supply-side management and demand-side management through inter-basin transfers and water conservation options to explore scenario-based adaptive water management strategies. This investigation showed that supply-side policy decisions, such as pumping water from an external basin, are not independent of demand-side management options, such as indoor-outdoor water use restrictions.…”

Section: Problem Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A CAS framework was developed to simulate non-linear feedbacks among consumers, policy makers, and the water resources system [10]. The framework consists of three major components: an ABM of residential consumers, an ABM of a policy maker, and a mechanistic water resources model.…”

Section: Overview Of Cas Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CAS framework is developed using AnyLogic 6.5 simulation software [33]. A detailed description can be found in Kanta and Zechman [10]; however, a brief description of the model is provided here.…”

Section: Overview Of Cas Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CAS modeling framework was developed to simulate urban water resources [9,10] and is extended in this research to explore the sustainability of using demand-side and supply-side management for water resources through a multi-objective approach. The CAS framework is coupled with an evolutionary computation-based multi-objective optimization methodology, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Tradeoffs in Demand-Side and Supply-Side Management of Urban Water Resources Using Agent-Based Modeling and Evolutionary Computation

Kanta

Berglund

2015

Systems

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Abstract:Urban water supply systems may be managed through supply-side and demand-side strategies, which focus on water source expansion and demand reductions, respectively. Supply-side strategies bear infrastructure and energy costs, while demand-side strategies bear costs of implementation and inconvenience to consumers. To evaluate the performance of demand-side strategies, the participation and water use adaptations of consumers should be simulated. In this study, a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) framework is developed to simulate consumer agents that change their consumption to affect the withdrawal from the water supply system, which, in turn influences operational policies and long-term resource planning. Agent-based models are encoded to represent consumers and a policy maker agent and are coupled with water resources system simulation models. The CAS framework is coupled with an evolutionary computation-based multi-objective methodology to explore tradeoffs in cost, inconvenience to consumers, and environmental impacts for both supply-side and demand-side strategies. Decisions are identified to specify storage levels in a reservoir that trigger: (1) increases in the volume of water pumped through inter-basin transfers from an external reservoir; and (2) drought stages, which restrict the volume of water that is allowed for residential outdoor uses. The proposed methodology is demonstrated for Arlington, Texas, water supply system to identify non-dominated strategies for an historic drought decade. Results demonstrate that pumping costs associated with maximizing

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The future of water resources systems analysis: Toward a scientific framework for sustainable water management

Brown¹,

Lund

Cai

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

249

180

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This paper presents a short history of water resources systems analysis from its beginnings in the Harvard Water Program, through its continuing evolution toward a general field of water resources systems science. Current systems analysis practice is widespread and addresses the most challenging water issues of our times, including water scarcity and drought, climate change, providing water for food and energy production, decision making amid competing objectives, and bringing economic incentives to bear on water use. The emergence of public recognition and concern for the state of water resources provides an opportune moment for the field to reorient to meet the complex, interdependent, interdisciplinary, and global nature of today's water challenges. At present, water resources systems analysis is limited by low scientific and academic visibility relative to its influence in practice and bridled by localized findings that are difficult to generalize. The evident success of water resource systems analysis in practice (which is set out in this paper) needs in future to be strengthened by substantiating the field as the science of water resources that seeks to predict the water resources variables and outcomes that are important to governments, industries, and the public the world over. Doing so promotes the scientific credibility of the field, provides understanding of the state of water resources and furnishes the basis for predicting the impacts of our water choices.

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Complex Adaptive Systems Framework to Assess Supply-Side and Demand-Side Management for Urban Water Resources

Cited by 74 publications

References 35 publications

Water conservation and hydrological transitions in cities in the United States

Water conservation and hydrological transitions in cities in the United States

Exploring Tradeoffs in Demand-Side and Supply-Side Management of Urban Water Resources Using Agent-Based Modeling and Evolutionary Computation

The future of water resources systems analysis: Toward a scientific framework for sustainable water management

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