Florida H2OSAV Insights: Home Water Use in Osceola County

This fact sheet provides current, basic information about residential water use in Osceola County, Florida. Written by Nick Taylor, Kaitlin Robb Price, Bradley Spatz, Parker Johnson, and Pierce Jones, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, November 2021.

Determinants of household water demand: a cross-sectional study in South West Nigeria

Estimating residential water demand in developing countries is complicated by the unique nature of water supply, characterised by unequal access and multiple water sources. Using cross-sectional data obtained from a survey of 1,300 households, the determinants of residential water demand were predicted using a multiple linear regression model. The determinants include access to water, household size, trip number, monthly income, payment for water, educational qualification, trip time and house type. The determinants predicted daily water consumption with an F(9, 1,014) = 81.063, P < 0.05, R2 = 0.450. Daily water consumption was found to be 2.8 times more per household and 4.4 times more per capita for those with on-site access, compared to those with off-site access. Moreover, consumption was influenced by the various water source categories.

Designing an early flood detection system prototype in riverbank settlements

There is still a lot of use of the floodgates in the main hole to drain the residential water into the river is still operated manually by someone in charge of opening and closing the floodgates. It is less efficient and often happens to the operator, so the water overflows and can lead to flooding. In this final task, a prototype of an early flood detection system and the automation of sewerage in a settlement located on the riverbanks. The control of floodgates on the main hole works automatically according to the signal from a sensor that reads the state of the water level. Main hole floodgates will work when the river water enters it at a specific limit that sensors will read and provide information on the level of river water in it to someone via WhatsApp to prevent river water from entering the settlement. When the main hole door is closed automatically, the residential water flow will be directed to a temporary reservoir. When the temporary reservoir is full, the sensor will signal to activate the discharge pump that will be discharged into the river to dispose of the water in the reservoir. The design and testing of flood early detection prototype tools and residential water disposal automation can work well by the design principle.

Impact of COVID-19 emergency on residential water end-use consumption measured with a high-resolution IoT system

In the era of Smart Cities, in which the paradigms of smart water and smart grid are keywords of technological progress, advancements in metering systems allow for water consumption data collection at the end-use level, which is necessary to profile users' behaviors and to promote sustainable use of water resources. In this paper, a real case study of residential water end-use consumption monitoring shows how data collected at a high-resolution rate allow for the evaluation of consumption profiles. The analysis was carried out by calculating consumption statistics, hourly consumption patterns, daily use frequency, and weekly use frequency. Then, the comparison of two consumption profiles, computed before and after the COVID-19 lockdown, allows us to understand how a change in social and economic factors can affect users' behavior. Finally, new perspectives for water demand modeling and management, based on data with high temporal frequency, are presented.

Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Residential Water Use Behavior in Japan

To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic on residential water use behavior in Japan, we conducted a web-based survey of 1310 people throughout Japan in March 2021, one year after the initial spread of coronavirus. The survey was designed to provide an average picture of Japan. The survey revealed that the time respondents spent at home increased during the pandemic for both men and women in all age groups by an average of 1 h, an increase of 9%. Changes in water use behavior increased almost in proportion to the increase in time spent at home, except for the frequency of defecation, which was limited to once a day. The amount of time spent in the washroom increased by 13%, an increase of more than 1.4 times the increase in the amount of time spent at home. The additional 40% increase could be considered an effect of the awareness of disease prevention. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to end in the near future. In Japan, the pandemic has led to a strong push for the reform of work styles. Therefore, even in a post-coronavirus-pandemic society, changes in work styles may normalize the increased time spent at home and the proportional increase in water use. However, because the change in water use behavior caused by quarantine awareness is a result of the fear of coronavirus infection, it is possible that water use will gradually return to pre-pandemic levels once the source of the fear is removed. To reflect the changes in water use behavior in the design of facilities in the post-coronavirus-pandemic society, it is necessary to continue this survey even once the pandemic has ended.

The socioeconomic determinants of sustainable residential water consumption in Athens: empirical results from a micro-econometric analysis

This paper provides empirical evidence on the effects of socioeconomic characteristics on residential water consumption. The case of Athens is taken as an example for the empirical investigation, using data from the 2019 Household Budget Survey. Employing ordinary, two- and three-stage least squares, seemingly unrelated regression equations and simultaneous quantile specifications, we found that residential water demand is highly price inelastic. Furthermore, empirical results show that water consumption is positively related to household age while more educated households and unemployed persons seem to follow more environmentally friendly behaviour with respect to water demand. Income, gender, house ownership and population density seem to insignificantly affect residential water demand. Our empirical findings might have important national and regional policy implications in the design of sustainable water demand management.