Promoting Water Conservation: Where to from here?

Abstract

This paper reports on a review of international water conservation efforts, but with a particular focus on the Australian context. The aim is to take stock of the current understanding of water conservation, in particular: what influences people's decision to conserve water, what influences whether people persist with water conservation behavior and what contributes to awareness and familiarity of water conservation behaviors. We also explore how all these factors jointly can achieve water savings over time, and the efficacy of past efforts to save water. Subsequently, this is used to identify where leading practice for managing water conservation is heading, which we argue is the application of recent developments in behavioral science and advances in smart metering to personalize water conservation programs. To support individualized water conservation efforts, we need more longitudinal studies of water conservation behavior, a greater focus on behavioral science, as well as the development of modelling tools that embed insights and lessons of this research into decision support capability. This can help to develop the capacity to better implement water conservation programs that respond to short-term water scarcity crises, such as droughts, while also providing persistent reductions in per-capita water demand that can help meet strategic water planning needs, such as deferring or downsizing capital investment in supply infrastructure to accommodate demands associated with population growth.

Transformative Approaches for Sustainable Water Management in the Urban Century

“…This special issue aimed to highlight novel approaches and technologies that can accelerate the transformation of current urban water systems towards achieving the objectives embedded in SUWM. The issue explored supply-side interventions, such as rainwater harvesting and stormwater harvesting [24][25][26], demand-side interventions [27], and water storage solutions that have the potential to enable a range of recycling technologies [28]. The issue also highlighted a novel method for better managing the integrity of conventional sewer systems [29].…”

“…Area needed Operation and maintenance requirements Furthermore, as noted by Hurlimann and Wilson [32], demand-side interventions, whilst often highly effective, are often under-utilized because of difficulties in predicting the performance of efforts. In line with this argument, Moglia et al [27] explore how the science of water conservation can be developed to provide more accurate predictions and provide decision makers with greater confidence in choosing demand-side interventions. To address this issue, they argue for the need for more longitudinal studies into the effectiveness of water conservation efforts, further research into how different communication styles impact results, and to raise the behavioral science capability in support of water conservation efforts.…”

Defeating Fluorosis in the East African Rift Valley: Transforming the Kilimanjaro into a Rainwater Harvesting Park

“…The originality of the concept presented herein is that RWH is basically not just a conservative tool to (i) make another source of potable water available and/or (ii) reduce the current potable water demand [83]. RWH is utilized for the provision of safe drinking water in a context where technological treatment has been difficult to realize (Section 3).…”

Machine Learning and Data Analytic Techniques in Digital Water Metering: A Review

“…To achieve these goals, we performed a systematic literature review in the field. Despite previous review studies having been conducted in this field [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], none-to the best of our knowledge-have been conducted from the perspective of ML and DA techniques. We believe that by providing a focused investigation of the literature, this review will benefit ML and DA practitioners as well as researchers in the water industry who are working on digital water metering and closely related fields.…”