Heterogeneity in Domestic Water Demand: An Application of Multilevel Analysis to the City of Valencia (Spain)

This paper deals with the question of unobservable heterogeneity and problems of scale in urban water demand. For this purpose, the determinants of domestic water consumption and the elasticities were estimated using a hierarchical model. For our empirical analysis, a household level data panel from Valencia (Spain) between 2009 and 2011 was available. Households were assigned to the city neighbourhoods to which they belong, which allowed us to incorporate the intra-urban scale into the analysis. In the estimate, the average price paid by each household in each bimonthly period was used due to the current tariff structure in Valencia. Regarding our results, there were differences in the consumption between the different neighbourhoods that were not independent of the average price paid by households. We found that 27% of the variability in consumption was explained by differences in household behaviour. In addition, an average price-elasticity in Valencia for all periods of −1.868 was obtained as well as a range of elasticities for the different neighbourhoods between (−1.53 and −1.21). From the results obtained, it is possible to extract relevant information for local water managers in order to apply economic instruments, prices and taxes to urban water demand.

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A Panel Data Estimation of Domestic Water Demand with IRT Tariff Structure: The Case of the City of Valencia (Spain)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031414 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1414

Author(s):

Mónica Madonado-Devis ◽

Vicent Almenar-Llongo

Keyword(s):

Panel Data ◽

Water Demand ◽

Large Data ◽

Demand Elasticity ◽

Average Price ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Domestic Water Demand ◽

Household Level ◽

Price Structure ◽

The City

In urban water provisioning, prices can improve efficiency, contributing to the achievement of the environmental objective. However, household responses to price changes differ widely based on the household characteristics. Analyses performed at the aggregate level ignore the implications of water demand incentives at the individual household level. A large data sample at the household level enables estimation of econometric models of water demand, capturing the heterogeneity in domestic consumption. This study estimated the domestic water demand in the city of Valencia and its elasticity, along with the demands of its different districts and neighbourhoods (intra-urban scale analysis). Water price structure in Valencia is completely different from that of other Spanish cities: it is a price structure of increasing volume (increasing rate tariffs, IRT). For this estimation, from a microdata panel at the household level, the demand function with average prices for the period 2008–2011 was estimated using panel data techniques including a fixed effect for each neighbourhood. The domestic water demand elasticity at the average price in Valencia was estimated at −0.88 (which is higher than that estimated for other Spanish cities). This value indicates an inelastic demand at the average price of the previous period, which can cause consumers to overestimate the price and react more strongly to changes.

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Urban water demand management – The city of Thessaloniki-Greece case study

Advances in Water Supply Management ◽

10.1201/noe9058096081.ch76 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

A Mentes ◽

Y Mylopoulos ◽

E Kolokytha ◽

D Vagiona

Keyword(s):

Water Demand ◽

Demand Management ◽

Urban Water ◽

Water Demand Management ◽

Urban Water Demand ◽

The City

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Urban water demand management – The city of Thessaloniki-Greece case study

Advances in Water Supply Management ◽

10.1201/noe9058096081-77 ◽

2003 ◽

pp. 732-737

Keyword(s):

Water Demand ◽

Demand Management ◽

Urban Water ◽

Water Demand Management ◽

Urban Water Demand ◽

The City

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Urban Water Demand Simulation in Residential and Non-Residential Buildings Based on a CityGML Data Model

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi9110642 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 642 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Keyu Bao ◽

Rushikesh Padsala ◽

Daniela Thrän ◽

Bastian Schröter

Keyword(s):

Water Demand ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Data Privacy ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Urban Water ◽

Urban Water Demand ◽

Water Demands ◽

Per Capita ◽

Industrial Water Demand ◽

Local Water

Humans’ activities in urban areas put a strain on local water resources. This paper introduces a method to accurately simulate the stress urban water demand in Germany puts on local resources on a single-building level, and scalable to regional levels without loss of detail. The method integrates building geometry, building physics, census, socio-economy and meteorological information to provide a general approach to assessing water demands that also overcome obstacles on data aggregation and processing imposed by data privacy guidelines. Three German counties were used as validation cases to prove the feasibility of the presented approach: on average, per capita water demand and aggregated water demand deviates by less than 7% from real demand data. Scenarios applied to a case region Ludwigsburg in Germany, which takes the increment of water price, aging of the population and the climate change into account, show that the residential water demand has the change of −2%, +7% and −0.4% respectively. The industrial water demand increases by 46% due to the development of economy indicated by GDP per capita. The rise of precipitation and temperature raise the water demand in non-residential buildings (excluding industry) of 1%.

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