Assessment of various types of household water consumption based on critical consumption behaviours using a novel criterion in metropolitan cities

Abstract

Abstract Rising demand for urban water consumption, especially for household uses, has led to a water crisis in various cities around the world. The amount of household water consumption, as the most important part of urban water use, is significantly affected by the consumers’ behaviours and water saving equipment used. Therefore, it is necessary to mitigate the household water demand by applying effective strategies such as promoting the water conservation culture and installing water saving appliances. For this purpose, consumers’ behaviours should be evaluated and various types of household water consumptions should be ranked. In this research, by distributing questionnaires among the citizens of Mashhad city, the consumer behaviours were evaluated. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to examine the similarity of people's consumption behaviours in various household uses. The results showed that people's consumption behaviours are different. By defining the impact coefficient index and the average impact coefficient index, various types of household water consumptions were ranked using Friedman and Wilcoxon statistical tests. Based on the results, changing consumption behaviours in bathing has the highest efficiencies on reducing water consumption. Dishwashing, using the washing machine and sanitation (toilet) were jointly ranked second. Car washing and tooth brushing were both equally important and ranked third.