Modeling Water Demands

Important questions about water demand arise whenever water resource investments or water policies are being considered. Typically, these questions are about how much water will be used, where it will be needed, what purposes will be served, and when these demands will occur. The actual demands will depend on such time-related variables as government policies, population levels and distribution, energy use and cost, per capita disposable income, technological development, consumer habits and lifestyles, and the prices of water withdrawals and wastewater disposal. Developing relations between these variables and using them to estimate water demands under various conditions requires analytical approaches. This book describes some of these approaches and shows how they can be used to analyze water demands for industry, agriculture, and urban settlements. The volume is directed primarily toward analysts responsible for generating information on water demands in relation to planning decisions in water resources management. Because by definition this is an interdisciplinary task, the audience of the book may be expected to consist of persons with diverse professional backgrounds, such as hydrologists, water resources planners, experts in the technology of water use (industrial, agricultural, or municipal), economists, and systems analysts who largely, although not exclusively, are working within water management or regional development agencies. The treatment of the methodological framework and of the models themselves is such that the book is not aimed exclusively at those interested in modeling per se. It is recognized throughout the text that any attempt to influence and improve planning methods in water resources systems must pay careful attention to practical issues and take account of the institutional, administrative, legal, and economic constraints under which those systems operate. The alternative approaches to water demand modeling described here should always be interpreted in the light of these case-by-case varying constraints