scholarly journals Characterizing Water Use at Mosques in Abu Dhabi

Author(s):  
Richard J. Marinshaw ◽  
Hazem Qawasmeh

In areas where Muslims constitute much of the population, mosques can account for a significant portion of overall water consumption. Among the various uses of water at mosques, ablution (i.e., ritual cleansing) is generally assumed to be the largest, by far. As part of an initiative to reduce water consumption at mosques in Abu Dhabi, we collected data on ablution and other end uses for water from hundreds of mosques in and around Abu Dhabi City. This paper takes a closer look at how water is used at mosques in Abu Dhabi and presents a set of water use profiles that provide a breakdown of mosque water consumption by end use. The results of this research indicate that cleaning the mosque (primarily the floors) and some of the other non-ablution end uses at mosques can account for a significant portion of the total water consumption and significantly more than was anticipated or has been found in other countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trey Dronyk-Trosper ◽  
Brandli Stitzel

AbstractAs water rights and water usage become an ever more important part of municipalities’ and states’ way of life, it becomes important to understand what policies can be effective for encouraging conservation of water. One method that has been employed at various times and throughout numerous communities is to limit outdoor watering days. We use a dataset with over 3 million property-month observations during the 2007–2015 period in Norman, Oklahoma, to identify whether the periodic implementation of mandatory water restrictions reduces water usage. Our data allow us to exploit variance in the timing of these water restriction programs. Our findings indicate that this policy reduces water consumption by 0.7 % of total water consumption. Additionally, we use home assessment prices to identify heterogeneity in this response, finding that high priced homes are more responsive to water use restrictions.



2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 427-435
Author(s):  
Jingyu Zhang

This study was conducted with an objective to determine the optimal negative pressure irrigation suitable for growth and development of eggplant. The total water consumption, yield, growth and development, physiological activity, and quality of eggplant were tested using a pot experiment in a greenhouse with four treatments, namely -3, -8, -15 kPa and normal irrigation (C). The negative pressure was maintained using a stable negative pressure irrigation device. The total water consumption of eggplant was decreased by 20.51–70.00%, the total water consumption intensity was decreased by 22.18–70.27%, and the water use efficiency was increased by up to 7.45–41.48% under negative pressure irrigation compared with control (C). When the irrigation pressure was controlled at -3 kPa, the nitrate reductase activity, root activity, and chlorophyll content were increased by 6.14–15.5%, 11.11–33.33% and 20.04–51.58%, respectively. The yield of eggplant was also increased by 12.43% compared with control. The soluble sugars, soluble protein, and vitamin C contents of eggplant fruits at different maturation stages were increased by 14.47–47.22%, 16.33–58.78%, and 19.64–43.42% at -3 kPa, respectively, compared with the control. Taken together, it was observed that stable negative pressure irrigation in the range of -3 to -15 kPa obviously reduced water consumption of eggplant, and had a water saving effect. Negative pressure irrigation (-3 kPa) improved the water use efficiency, physiological activity, growth and development, and yield and quality of eggplant. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers



Author(s):  
Wenjie Geng ◽  
Xiaohui Jiang ◽  
Yuxin Lei ◽  
Jinyan Zhang ◽  
Huan Zhao

Rapid economic and societal development increases resource consumption. Understanding how to balance the discrepancy between economic and social water use and ecological water use is an urgent problem to be solved, especially in arid areas. The Heihe River is the second-largest inland river in China, and this problem is notable. To ensure the downstream ecological water use, the “Water Distribution Plan for the Mainstream of the Heihe River” (97 Water Diversion Scheme) controls the discharge of Yingluo Gorge and Zhengyi Gorge, while the “Opinions of applying the strictest water resources control system” (Three Red Lines) restricts the water use. With the development of the economy and agriculture in the midstream, Zhengyi Gorge’s discharge cannot reach the Heihe River’s ecological water downstream. This paper is under the constraints of the “97 Water Diversion Scheme” of Heihe River and the “Three Red Lines” of the total water use control index for Zhangye County. We constructed a water resource allocation model for the midstream of Heihe River to reasonably allocate water resources in the Heihe River’s midstream and downstream. This model is divided into three parts: Establish the mathematical equation, simulate the water consumption under the different inflow conditions, and ensure each water user’s demand. The result showed that if we fail to confine total water consumption in the midstream, through the reasonable allocation of water resources, the real water use and water consumption of the middle Heihe River will be greater than the “97 Water Diversion Scheme” and the “Three Red Lines.” If we confine water consumption, they will be within the “97 Water Diversion Scheme” and the “Three Red Lines,” at the same time, they can reach the downstream of the Heihe River’s ecological water. Besides, under the premise of satisfying the economic water and ecological water downstream of the Heihe River, returning farmland to wasteland and strengthening water-saving measures will improve water efficiency and be more conducive to allocating water resources.



2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (6) ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Guzel Gumerova ◽  
Georgiy Gulyuk ◽  
Dmitry Kucher ◽  
Anatoly Shuravilin ◽  
Elena Piven

Data of long-term researches (2015–2018) in southern forest-steppe zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan, is justified theoretically and experimentally the mode of irrigation of potatoes on leached chernozems of unsatisfactory, satisfactory and good ameliorative condition of irrigated lands. For the growing periods of potatoes with different heat and moisture supply, the number of watering, the timing of their implementation, irrigation and irrigation norms are established. On lands with unsatisfactory meliorative state the number of irrigation depending on weather conditions of potato vegetation period varied from 0 to 3 (1.5 on average) with average irrigation norm – 990 m3/ha. With satisfactory meliorative state of lands the number of irrigation on average increased from 0 to 4 (2.3 on average) with irrigation norm – 1305 m3/ha. On lands with good meliorative state the number of irrigation was the highest – from 1 to 5 (3 on average) with average irrigation irrigation norm is 1653 m3/ha. It was noted that in the dry periods of potato vegetation the greatest number of watering was carried out (3–5 watering), and in the wet periods (2017) watering was not carried out except for the area with a good reclamation state, where only one irrigation was carried out by the norm of 550 m3/ha. Water consumption of potato was studied in dynamics as a whole during the growing season and the months of the growing season depending on weather conditions of vegetation period and land reclamation condition of irrigated lands, as well as in the control (without irrigation). The lowest total water consumption was in the area without irrigation and averaged 226.8 mm. In irrigated areas, its values increased to 319-353.4 mm. The average daily water consumption varied from 2.12 to 3.3 mm. The highest rates of potato water consumption were observed in June and July, and the lowest – in May and August. In the total water consumption of potatoes on the site without irrigation, the largest share was occupied by atmospheric precipitation and in addition to them the arrival of moisture from the soil. Irrigation water was used in irrigated areas along with precipitation, the share of which was 30.2–46.1 %.



Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 499
Author(s):  
Salmatta Ibrahim A ◽  
Fayyaz Ali Memon ◽  
David Butler

Ensuring a sustainable urban water supply for developing/low-income countries requires an understanding of the factors affecting water consumption and technical evidence of individual consumption which can be used to design an improved water demand projection. This paper compared dry and rainy season water sources available for consumption and the end-use volume by each person in the different income groups. The study used a questionnaire survey to gather household data for a total of 398 households, which was analysed to develop the relationship between per capita water consumption characteristics: Socio-economic status, demographics, water use behaviour around indoor and outdoor water use activities. In the per capita water consumption patterns of Freetown, a seasonal variation was found: In the rainy season, per capita water consumption was found to be about 7% higher than the consumption for the full sample, whilst in the dry season, per capita water consumption was almost 14% lower than the full survey. The statistical analysis of the data shows that the average per capita water consumption for both households increases with income for informal slum-, low-, middle- and high-income households without piped connection (73, 78, 94 and 112 L/capita/day) and with connection (91, 97, 113 and 133 L/capita/day), respectively. The collected data have been used to develop 20 statistical models using the multiple linear stepwise regression method for selecting the best predictor variable from the data set. It can be seen from the values that the strongest significant relationships of per capita consumption are with the number of occupants (R = −0.728) in the household and time spent to fetch water for use (R = −0.711). Furthermore, the results reveal that the highest fraction of end use is showering (18%), then bathing (16%), followed by toilet use (14%). This is not in agreement with many developing countries where toilet use represents the largest component of indoor end use.



2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Elizabeth Meyer ◽  
Heinz Erasmus Jacobs ◽  
Adeshola Ilemobade

Abstract Household water end-uses have been extracted from high-resolution smart water meter data in various earlier studies. However, research on end-use disaggregation from rudimentary data is limited. Rudimentary data is defined as data recorded in intervals longer than 1 min, or data recorded with resolutions larger than 0.1 L/pulse. Developing countries typically deal with rudimentary data, due to the high cost and high resource investment associated with high-resolution data. The aim of this study was to extract useful event characteristics from rudimentary data, without identifying the actual end-uses per se. A case study was conducted in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, where 63 homes were equipped with iPERL smart water meters. The meters recorded flow measurements every 15 s at a 1 L/pulse resolution, rendering the recorded data rudimentary. A total of 1,107,547 event pulses were extracted over the 217-day study period. Although the method presented is limited in the sense that water use events cannot be identified, the method allows for disaggregation of event pulses in the presence of rudimentary data. Using this tool, it is possible to lift valuable information from rudimentary data that would subsequently benefit service providers in setting water demand strategies.



2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Sarker ◽  
S. Gato-Trinidad

The process of developing an integrated water demand model integrating end uses of water has been presented. The model estimates and forecasts average daily water demand based on the end-use pattern and trend of residential water consumption, daily rainfall and temperature, water restrictions and water conservation programmes. The end-use model uses the latest end-use data set collected from Yarra Valley Water, Australia. A computer interface has also been developed using hypertext markup language and hypertext pre-processor. The developed model can be used by water authorities and water resource planners in forecasting water demand and by household owners in determining household water consumption.



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