An Assessment of Water Demand Management Options from a Systems Approach

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Foxon ◽  
D. Butler ◽  
J. K. Dawes ◽  
D. Hutchinson ◽  
M. A. Leach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Demand ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Water Demand Management

Water demand management in Syria: centralized and decentralized views

Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 549-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Salman ◽  
W. Mualla
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Control Surface ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Available Resources

The countries of the Middle East are characterized by large temporal and spatial variations in precipitation and with limited surface and groundwater resources. The rapid growth and development in the region have led to mounting pressures on scarce resources to satisfy water demands. The dwindling availability of water to meet development needs has become a significant regional issue, especially as a number of countries are facing serious water deficit. Syria is becoming progressively shorter of water as future demand is coming close to or even surpassing available resources. Syria had a population of 18 million in 2002, and its total renewable water resources (TRWR) is estimated around 16 × 109 m3 per year. In other words, the per capita TRWR is less than the water scarcity index (1,000 m3 per person per year) which will make the country experience chronic stress that will hinder its economic development and entail serious degradation. Unfortunately, if water demand at current prices continues to increase in the same way, Syria will experience an alarming deficit between the available resources and the potential needs in the near future. In Syria, until fairly recently, emphasis has been placed on the supply side of water development. Demand management and improvement of patterns of water use has received less attention. The aim was always to augment the national water budget with new water. The most popular way of achieving this aim was to control surface flows by building new dams and creating multi-purpose reservoirs (there are now around 160 dams in Syria with a total capacity of 14 × 109 m3). Irrigation schemes were also built and agricultural activities were expanded greatly to achieve self-sufficiency in essential food products and food security. However, this is no longer achievable with the limited water resources available; water demand is rapidly increasing and easily mobilizable resources have already been exploited. The objective of this paper is to think of different possible ways to manage water demand in the agricultural sector of Syria. It mainly involves two main management options: taxation as a centralized option and water markets as a decentralized one. While water demand management refers to improving both productive and allocative efficiency of water use, this paper focuses on two allocative measures (taxation and water markets) and does not thoroughly cover productive measures such as rehabilitation and upgrading of irrigation schemes or improving operation. However, the paper does not attempt to settle the question for or against each option but tries to find some elements to determine under which conditions the option can lead to expected outcomes taking into account the history of management and the local conditions in Syria: political, social and economical. The paper also looks at other alternatives such as cooperative action and lifting subsidies and argues their possible association to the main management options that may help in reducing the difficulties of implementation.

Water demand management - philosophy or implementation?

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
J.S. Buckle
Keyword(s):  
Water Demand ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Water Industry ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Management Philosophy ◽  
Leakage Reduction ◽  
Drought Conditions ◽  
African Context

This paper describes the introduction of water demand management in the southern African context. Originally a response to drought conditions, water demand management is now a key element in Rand Water's strategy of water cycle management - a mix of interventions that (holistically and continuously) keep the water industry viable and sustainable. This experience points to awareness and community education programmes being an essential companion to the technical interventions such as leakage reduction measures.

Social interaction in water demand management implementation

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 295-301
Author(s):  
J.S. Buckle
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Education Project ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
Efficient Water Use

This article describes a successful awareness and education project undertaken in an East Rand township by the Water Cycle Management Section of Rand Water. The Project's focus was to create awareness in the community of the broad concept of water cycle management within an environment and to transfer skills to community members (facilitators) who could then assist in ensuring effective and efficient water use.

Elicitation of expert knowledge to develop decision support tools for use in water demand management planning

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
D. Inman ◽  
D. Simidchiev ◽  
P. Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Influence Diagrams ◽  
Decision Support Tools ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Support Tools

This paper examines the use of influence diagrams (IDs) in water demand management (WDM) strategy planning with the specific objective of exploring how IDs can be used in developing computer-based decision support tools (DSTs) to complement and support existing WDM decision processes. We report the results of an expert consultation carried out in collaboration with water industry specialists in Sofia, Bulgaria. The elicited information is presented as influence diagrams and the discussion looks at their usefulness in WDM strategy design and the specification of suitable modelling techniques. The paper concludes that IDs themselves are useful in developing model structures for use in evidence-based reasoning models such as Bayesian Networks, and this is in keeping with the objectives set out in the introduction of integrating DSTs into existing decision processes. The paper will be of interest to modellers, decision-makers and scientists involved in designing tools to support resource conservation strategy implementation.

scholarly journals Research on Optimal Water Allocation Based on Water Rights Trade under the Principle of Water Demand Management: A Case Study in Bayannur City, China

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizhen Wang ◽  
Yuefei Huang ◽  
Yong Zhao ◽  
Haihong Li ◽  
Fan He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Demand ◽  
Water Allocation ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Optimal Water Allocation

Water-demand management: assessing impacts of climate and other changes on water usage in Central Arizona

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Netra B. Chhetri
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Active Management ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Water Demand Management ◽  
Central Arizona

Planning for sustainable water management in the arid region of the southwestern USA is challenging mostly due to only partial understanding of factors converging around water supply and demand. Some of the factors that prompt concern about the adequacy of water resources are: (a) a growing urban population seeking a range of services, including the need to preserve and enhance aquatic ecosystems; (b) dwindling water storage due to multi-year drought conditions; and (c) the prospect of human-induced climate changes and its consequences in the hydrologic system of the region. This study analyzes the potential for water saving in the Phoenix Active Management Area (AMA) of Central Arizona, which includes the city of Phoenix, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. Based on an extensive literature review and secondary data analysis, this paper investigates multiple factors that place increasing strain on current water resources, and attempts to extend this analysis to 2025. Outdoor water use within the residential landscape is the most important factor that strains water resources in Phoenix AMA. Any gain in efficiency through agricultural water demand management would not only improve the availability of water for other uses in the AMA, but would facilitate adaptation of the agricultural system to climate and other ongoing changes.

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