<p>This
seminar will present the key insights and practical implications for targeted
management strategies that have emerged from analysis of 3 years of smart water
meter measurements on a representative set of 100-150 households in Adelaide.
It will be of interest to a wide range of personnel within SA Water including
water network planners and operators who use demand and waste water predictions
to optimize planning and operational decisions, and to community engagement and
policy personnel who wish to better understand the relationship between
household behavior and water use. The topics to be covered include:</p>
<p><b>Drivers of Indoor Use</b></p>
<p>The
key drivers of indoor water use were identified by combining end use
measurements with household surveys of demographics, behavior, appliance usage
and attitude. Key findings include:</p>
<p>•
Distinct
household usage groups (related to demographics such as income/age/attitude)
were identified with different water end-use patterns. </p>
<p>•
This
has implications for the development of targeted strategies for effective
demand management and water use prediction to optimise planning and operations
of water networks.</p>
<p>•
The
Behavioural End Use Stochastic Simulator (BESS) that utilises differences in
behaviour and water using appliances to provide end-use predictions was found
to be highly accurate (~5-10% errors) when calibrated with local end-use
measurements. </p>
<p>•
This
implies BESS can provide reliable water use predictions that incorporate changes
in behaviour and household characteristics. BESS was used to attribute
water-use reduction during the 2007-2009 drought and provide predictions of
demand management scenarios (uptake of water efficient appliances) in the
future (2025 and 2050). </p>
<p><b>Drivers of Outdoor Use and Peak Demands </b></p>
<p>The key
drivers of outdoor water use and peak demand were analyzed by combining the three
years of smart water measurements with climate and household characteristics (garden
size/irrigation type etc). Key findings are: </p>
<p>• Potential impacts of future climate change on peak demands.</p>
<p>• Identification of the key drivers of outdoor water use and its
implications for water prediction and demand management strategies. </p>
<p>• Identification of the key drivers of peak water and its
implications for peak demand prediction and peak demand reduction strategies. An
important finding being that a small proportion of the households with certain
characteristics contribute a large amount to the peak demand. </p>
<p>The
majority of these findings emerged from the “Identifying the Key Drivers of
Household Water Use” component of the Goyder Institute for Water Research
Optimal Water Resource Mix (OWRM) for Greater Adelaide project of which SA
Water was a key stakeholder.</p