Modeling non-residential urban water use: Case Study on two high water use schools in Melbourne

S. Barua, A. W.M. Ng, S. Muthukumaran, P. Roberts, A. Athuraliya, N. T. Diamond, B. J.C. Perera

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Paper published in Proceedingspeer-review

Abstract

Modeling urban water use plays a key role in water resource planning and management. The urban water use consists of both residential and non-residential water use. As observed from the literature, a vast amount of research has been conducted on modeling residential water use. However, a significant portion (e.g. around 30% of total water use in Melbourne, Australia) of urban water use belongs to non-residential sector, and limited attention has been given to modeling non-residential urban water use. Therefore, this project aims to model non-residential urban water use. The method adopted was first to disaggregate water use based on the heterogeneous nature of water use customers (e.g. schools, hospitals and restaurants) and their annual water usage (e.g. >20ML, 15-20ML, 10-15ML, etc.), and then to develop multiple linear regression models for each user group. Two high water use schools in Melbourne, Australia were considered as case studies. The model was developed using independent variables of past water use, season and water restrictions. Quarterly billing data for the five years of 2005-2009 was used in this study to develop separate models for two schools. The models were calibrated using four years data from 2005 to 2008 and showed very good results with the coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.93 and 0.96. The models were then validated using 2009 observed data, and again showed strong correlation with R2 values of 0.87 and 0.89. Furthermore, the mean absolute error (MAE) and the root mean square error (RMSE) for both calibration and validation were low. These results show that the developed models have good capability of modeling water use of the two schools considered in this study.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012
PublisherEngineers Australia
Pages700-707
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781922107626
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012 - Sydney, Australia
Duration: 19 Nov 201222 Nov 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012

Conference

Conference34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2012
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney
Period19/11/1222/11/12

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2012 Engineers Australia.

Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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