Smart metering and water end-use data: Conservation benefits and privacy risks

© 2010 by the authors. Smart metering technology for residential buildings is being trialed and rolled out by water utilities to assist with improved urban water management in a future affected by climate change. The technology can provide near real-time monitoring of where water is used in the home, disaggregated by end-use (shower, toilet, clothes washing, garden irrigation, etc.). This paper explores questions regarding the degree of information detail required to assist utilities in targeting demand management programs and informing customers of their usage patterns, whilst ensuring privacy concerns of residents are upheld

Industrial symbiosis in gladstone: A decade of progress and future development

© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Heavy industrial areas with large volume waste streams show great promise for applying the concept of industrial symbiosis. This article examines industrial symbiosis in Gladstone, one of Australia's rapidly developing heavy industrial areas. Along with the analysis of the area's progress over the last decade and detailed description of existing resource synergies, it also overviews Gladstone's future prospects, including identification of potential resource synergies based on likely future industries and their waste streams, and an estimation of the overall environment benefits from the implementation of these new synergies. Based on estimates of the future waste streams for 2020 there is likely to be a large growth of environmental impacts in the Gladstone industrial area, including a fourfold increase in solid wastes, doubling fresh water consumption and threefold increase in carbon dioxide emissions. The implementation of new synergy projects can significantly contribute to improving resource efficiency covering from 5%to 40%of the overall future emitted and disposed waste streams

Desalination for urban water: Changing perceptions and future scenarios in Australia

Copyright © 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. In response to prolonged drought, large desalination plants have been built in Australia's major cities over the last decade. This paper identifies those plants and focuses on the context surrounding the decision to build the plant in Sydney. Whilst a portfolio approach allowed lower cost options for secure supply to be identified - including an innovative 'desalination-readiness option' - perceived uncertainty and political decisions led the state government to build the desalination plant before the carefully considered planning triggers dictated and without revisiting the decision when the drought broke. Media analysis is used to construct a timeline of reported headlines relating to the pre- and post-construction periods including events surrounding heavy rain, overflowing dams and dialogue on desalination being unnecessary and expensive. The paper highlights a disconnect between the planning processes, stakeholder and community engagement and political decision-making. Given desalination is now an embedded feature of water supply in most major Australian cities, scenarios are used to assess the potential role of desalination in the future urban water landscape and broader economy

End use water consumption in households: Impact of socio-demographic factors and efficient devices

To assess water savings in households using efficient devices and to understand how savings vary between different socio-demographic groups in the community, high resolution end use water consumption data is required (i.e. disaggregating water use for showers, toilets, clothes washers and garden irrigation etc.). This paper reports selected findings from the Gold Coast Residential End Use Study (Australia), which focussed on the relationship between a range of socio-demographic and household stock efficiency variables and water end use consumption levels. A mixed methods approach was executed using qualitative and quantitative data. The study provided evidence as to the potential savings derived from efficient appliances as well as socio-demographic clusters having higher water consumption across end uses. The payback period for some water efficient devices was also explored. The study has implications for urban water demand management planning and forecasting. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Developing novel approaches to tracking domestic water demand under uncertainty - A reflection on the "up scaling" of social science approaches in the United Kingdom

Climate change, socio-demographic change and changing patterns of ordinary consumption are creating new and unpredictable pressures on urban water resources in the UK. While demand management is currently offered as a first option for managing supply/demand deficit, the uncertainties around demand and its' potential trajectories are problematic. In this paper we review the ways in which particular branches of social science offer a model of 'distributed demand' that helps explain these current and future uncertainties. We also identify a few potential strategies for tracking where the drivers of change for demand may lie. Rather than suggesting an alternative 'demand forecasting' technique we propose alternative methodological approaches that 'stretch out' and 'scale up' measures of demand to inform water resources planning and policy. These proxy measurements could act as 'indictors of change' to water demand at a population level that could then be used to inform research and policy strategies. We conclude by arguing for the need to recognise the co-production of demand futures and supply trajectories