Disaggregated model of water consumption at the regional level

Forecasting demand based on region-specific understandings has become more essential than ever for water utilities and city planners to ensure financial, ecological, and social sustainability. Using Wallonia (Belgium) as a case study, this research developed a workflow to fuse multiple data sources at different spatial resolutions to (1) study the local-specific factors influencing residential water consumption, (2) project regional water demand until 2040, (3) and re-evaluate the redistributive effect of the current tariffs and several competitive ones. Results identify household size, rainwater use habits, and dwelling characteristics as the main drivers of annual household water use. On the other hand, weather factors and changes in daily routines are expected to be major factors influencing daily demand in the future. When considering potential uncertainties in socio-demographics, land use, and rainwater use, projected water demand shows an increase of 14.5–16.9 % in the region by 2040. This is mainly attributable to population growth and the increasing share of single-member households. Redistributive analysis suggests the burden of high fixed subscription fees on low-income households and emphasizes the importance of combining tariff schemes with the social fund to maintain water equity. In addition to offering a deep situational insight into residential water use in Wallonia, the thesis also provides a holistic approach that can be further adapted to other regions and other utilities in future studies.

Bich-Ngoc N, Teller J (2018). A review of residential water consumption determinants. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Springer, Vol. 10964 LNCS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95174-4_52

Bich-Ngoc N, Prevedello C, Cools M, Teller J (2022). Factors influencing residential water consumption in Wallonia, Belgium. Utilities Policy. 74: 101281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2021.101281

Bich-Ngoc N, Teller J (2020). Potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through changes in outbound tourism on water demand: The case of Liège (Belgium). Water (Switzerland). 12: 2820. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102820