Decadal review of residential water demand analysis from a practical perspective

Abstract

Residential water demand has been extensively studied over more than four decades, but as yet there is no consensus on the best or most appropriate model from a practical perspective. Conservation and sustainability programs with new metering incentives have increased the necessity for an easy to use forecasting model for water resource management based on a better understanding of the factors driving residential water demand. Analytical techniques have increased in complexity, advancing with new tools for computing and data collection such as GIS and remote sensing. This paper presents a decadal review of how the residential water demand analysis have evolved over time with changes in price policies, conservation attitudes, technological improvements, and other factors explaining water demand. This paper will help provide the knowledge base for the future studies and recommendations are made for addressing/bridging the gap between drinking water industry and research community.