A review of residential water conservation tool performance and influences on implementation effectiveness

Abstract

Water scarcity and household water consumption has received increasing attention on national public agendas in recent years. At the same time a number of important demand-side management (DSM) studies have been reported on by non-academic institutions, and there is a need for a comprehensive, up to date review of the impacts of DSM tools and the factors which influence their effectiveness. This paper aims to address an apparent lack of coverage in the academic literature by presenting a review of residential DSM tools using reports of recent DSM campaigns in the western (developed) world. The central objectives are to understand the potential for residential DSM tools to save water in different types of household under varying conditions and to identify influences on implementation effectiveness. In the discussion, we explore causes of uncertainty in DSM planning including the non-transferability of trends and existing methods of evaluation, and describe some of the resulting problems. The conclusions offer recommendations as to areas that require, and offer the greatest scope, for future research. This review article will be of interest to, among others, water company professionals, policy makers, regulators, researchers, and environmental agencies.

Keywords:

• Demand-side management
• Water saving technology
• Water conservation
• Household water demand

Acknowledgements

The work on which this paper is based was supported by the European Commission 6^th Framework Project—Aquastress, Contract No. 511231-2. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the European Commission.