Project Overview:
Water authorities produce water demand projections for a range of purposes and time frames, such as assisting with planning activities and to support Water Plan submissions to the Essential Services Commission.
There are currently a range of approaches available to authorities to construct these demand projections, ranging from relatively simple extrapolation of historical consumption patterns to more complex approaches based on end uses, approaches based on regression modelling, and other more novel modelling approaches. These different approaches have different strengths, data requirements, and skill levels required to run them and produce a range of different outputs.
In addition, more recently, questions driven by issues such as drought and water restrictions have required demand modelling to provide information in ways that have not been asked of them before. Finally, the incorporation of Integrated Water Cycle Management initiatives will provide a new set of challenges.
The project aims to:
- Identify the current and perceived needs of water authorities in relation to water demand modelling, including (but not limited to) issues such as
- Accuracy, spatial granularity, alternative water sources, interaction with other tools (eg waste water projection tools)
- Create a resource by which authorities can assess approaches according to that authority’s particular needs
- Identify the available and known in development modelling approaches
- Conduct an assessment of available and known in development modelling approaches based on the assessment resource created.
This project will be completed by July 2013, and the resource developed will be available for authorities to adapt and use as they require.
