The Role of Communicative Feedback in Successful Water Conservation Programs

The evolution of urban water metering and conservation in Australia

This article discusses the results of a research study that used focus groups and surveys to explore the public’s perspectives on water and water conservation programmes in the Lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Findings suggest that a high percentage of people view water conservation as an important environmental issue in the Lower Sunshine Coast. Recommendations made by research participants to improve local government’s existing water conservation programmes and improve regulatory mechanisms are discussed extensively. Some examples of these recommendations include: creating the water conservation programmes appealing to the senses, giving people a reason why they should conserve water, constantly reminding the public and developing

Water education and conservation programs have grown exponentially in Australian primary and secondary schools and, although early childhood services have been slower to respond to the challenges of sustainability, they are catching up fast. One early program targeted at preschools was the Water Aware Centre Program in northern New South Wales developed by the local water supply authority. This paper reports on a qualitative study of children's and teachers' experiences of the program in three preschools. The study's aim was to identify program attributes and pedagogies that supported learning and action taking for water conservation, and to investigate if and how the program influenced children's and teachers' practices. Data were collected through an interview with the program designer, conversations with child participants of the program, and a qualitative survey with early childhood staff. A three-step thematic analysis was conducted on the children's and teachers' data. Findings revealed that the program expanded children and teachers' ideas about water conservation and increased their water conservation practices. The children were found to influence the water conservation practices of the adults around them, thus changing practices at school and at home.

Despite years of study and substantial investment in remediation and prevention, soil erosion continues to be a major environmental problem with regard to land use in India and elsewhere around the world. Furthermore, changing climate and/or weather patterns are exacerbating the problem. Our objective was to review past and current soil conservation programmes in India to better understand how production-, environmental-, social-, economic- and policy-related issues have affected soil and water conservation and the incentives needed to address the most critical problems. We found that to achieve success in soil and water conservation policies, institutions and operations must be co-ordinated using a holistic approach. Watershed programmes have been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for bringing socio-economic change to different parts of India. Within both dryland and rainfed areas, watershed management has quietly revolutionized agriculture by aligning various sectors through technological soil and water conservation interventions and land-use diversification. Significant results associated with various watershed-scale soil and water conservation programmes and interventions that were effective for reducing land degradation and improving productivity in different parts of the country are discussed.

A segmentation approach to understanding water consumption behavioral patterns among households in Saudi Arabia for a sustainable future

In April 1991, the ASCE's Board of Direction adopted the Water Conservation Policy Statement developed by the ASCE's National Water Policy Committee. The Board officially supports the conservation of water as an essential aspect of water-resources management and recognizes that water conservation should include activities that promote the efficient use and management of water. This paper summarizes the results of survey data received from 47 Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies member agencies as an indication of the efforts being made by water utilities throughout the nation to implement the activities encouraged in the ASCE Water Conservation Policy Statement. The paper also contains a brief summary of the Seattle Water Department's current and planned water-conservation programs, and the department's experience with water-use-curtailment measures that successfully augmented the ongoing water-conservation programs during the 1987 and 1992 droughts in the state of Washington.

Reducing carbon emissions through water conservation: An analysis of 10 major U.S. cities

The climate cost of saving water by different plastic mulching patterns

The water meters of 129 residences were read for 70 consecutive days. After five weeks of baseline, state-of-the-art education, feedback, and engineering interventions were applied according to the factorial design: 2(Education versus No Education) × 2(Daily Consumption Feedback versus No Feedback) × 2(Low Cost Conservation Devices versus No Devices). Significant water savings occurred following only the installation of low cost water conservation devices, although the amount of water saved with these devices (a daily average of 17 gallons) was much less than expected. The findings are discussed with reference to the development of cost-effective water conservation programs.

Water consumption and conservation assessment of the coal power industry in China

This paper reviews on some of the recent methodologies of intelligent water metering system used in the smart water meter (SWM) to overcome the problem of water crises. The conservation of water is one of the vital problems in worldwide that needs proper attention. Due to the unpredictable rise in water consumption, the entire fresh water sources are diminishing day by day. At present, there is a gradual advancement in the technologies used for the purpose of monitoring of the proper utilization of water sources. This resulted into better functioning and solving various water loss issues in broad spectrum. The different frameworks available for SWM including the advanced communication protocols are also being discussed in this paper that could help for further advancement in the SWM.KeywordsSmart water meter (SWM)FrameworksProtocolsIntelligent water metering system

This study is an academic research project completed to satisfy the California Polytechnic Master Thesis Requirement for the Master Degree of City and Regional Planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The County of San Luis Obispo Planning and Building Department is the client for this professional project. The project was requested by the County of San Luis Obispo to assist in its water conservation efforts and to help achieve a 20 percent per capita reduction of water use by the year 2020. The project consists of two documents: A Handbook of Water Conservation Technologies and Practices (Handbook) and the Background Report for the Water Conservation Handbook (Background Report). The Handbook is intended to provide a quick guide to various water conserving fixtures and appliances that developers and residents throughout the County of San Luis Obispo can reference for personal use. The Handbook includes information on the type of technology, the benefits in terms of water saving potential, and the cost of implementation. The Handbook is organized based on Indoor and Outdoor water uses. The Background Report is a supplemental document for the Handbook which provides more in depth descriptions and examples on each technology. The Background Report also provides history on water conservation issues in California and San Luis Obispo. It looks at two case studies: one, on the water conservation efforts in Phoenix, Arizona, and two, on a plumbing retrofit project on the Cal Poly Campus that was awarded LEED certification for its water savings. Furthermore, the Background Report explores case studies in the use of community participatory planning to produce water conservation plans. The studies focused on a Community Plan development in Arroyo Grande, California, and on an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan in the Greater Los Angeles Region. The Background Report concludes by providing some cautionary advice on water conservation technologies and provides future recommendations for the county of San Luis Obispo to improve its water conservation efforts.

GIS-based morphometric analysis was employed for prioritization of the Wadi Wala catchment, southern Jordan. Twenty three fourth-order sub-basins were prioritized based on morphometric analysis, then appropriate soil and water conservation measures were proposed. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Arc GIS were used to delineate watersheds and to extract the drainage networks, and other required thematic maps (elevation and slope). LANDSAT data was used to prepare land use/land cover map, and a soil map was digitized using Arc GIS software. Linear and shape parameters were computed to prioritize 23 sub-watersheds, and ranks were designated based on the calculated compound parameter (Cp). Sub-basins grouped under a high priority class are exposed to high erosion risk; thus, they are of high potential for applying soil and water conservation measures. The current study substantiates the capability of morphometric analysis method, and geospatial technology in watershed prioritization. The Discriminant Analysis (DA) employed validates the priority classes (high, moderate, and low priority) achieved based on morphometric analysis, where they found statistically distinct from each other. Thus, it can be concluded that prioritization based only on morphometric analysis method is consistent, reliable, and of high capacity using GIS platform. Priority map along with soil, land user/cover, and slope information will help decision makers to execute proper soil and water conservation programs in the rainfed highlands of Jordan.

The Town of Cary, North Carolina, has found that a carefully planned water conservation program can offer real solutions to real problems. By making the most of existing water supplies, Cary's conservation efforts have helped create a “new” source of water and enabled the town to delay two future plant expansions by a total of 10 years, at a cost of $138/mil gal ($37/ML) of water saved. This paper offers an overview of Cary's long‐term water conservation program and its associated costs and benefits.

To keep pace with population and economic growth, the city of Hyderabad, India, will need to identify and develop new supply sources almost continually. Increasing population growth rate, declining surface water resources, overexploitation of groundwater, deterioration of ground water quality and poor sewage treatment are the major water-related issues in Hyderabad. This paper reviews the current situation facing policy makers who need to come to terms with the problem of restricted water supply and increasing demand in an urban centre such as Hyderabad, India. The City Water Balance model developed in this study can be used to analyse different scenarios that include water conservation, urban wastewater reuse and improvement of distribution and conveyance efficiency. Water conservation programs, which include a 5% conveyance efficiency improvement, reusing 90 million cubic metres (MCM) of urban runoff and adoption of water harvesting by 0.5 million households together with recycling 120 MCM of wastewater recycling wastewater would be sufficient to meet the water demand by 2031, if the population grows at a rate of 2.5%.