UNDERSTANDING AND MODELLING OF RESIDENTIAL WATER USE BEHAVIOUR

There is an increasingly water scarcity issue, both for developed and developing countries. Water authorities are facing the challenges to secure the need of consumers and water saving due to the climate change and the population increase. To manage this water scarcity threat, water conservation projects are gaining overall attendances by water utilities and government. From the management perspective, it is desirable to investigate and understand how consumers use water and their water use behaviours. The main objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive understanding of residential household water use behaviour through theoretical and modelling perspectives.
This study is based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and proposed an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) for understanding the behaviour intervention mechanism. A survey of residential water use behaviour in China was designed and conducted in 2014 and the data was used to evaluate the extended theory. The theoretical evaluation has proved that the ETPB could increase the predictive power compared to original version of TPB, and also provide empirical evidence for the correlations among ETPB variables.
Traditionally, static behaviour intervention models are widely utilised to simulate behaviour intervention process. These static methods can predict targeted human behaviour reasonably well, but they lack capabilities on understanding and responding behaviour change process with concerned time changes. Using the proposed ETPB theory, a dynamic behaviour intervention model for household water use behaviour prediction is presented to introduce the dynamic behavioural modelling solution. This model is based on adopted Structure Equation Model approach and Control Engineering Concept. A case study for household water consumption model using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is proposed to explore the link between behaviour value and the water consumption amount, moreover, for evaluation of intervention trend of proposed ETPB dynamic behaviour model with system parameter identification.
This research findings demonstrated that household water consumption could be saved by using proper behaviour change management strategies. The significance of these findings about behaviour intervention modelling in water end use areas is discussed. Also, potential applications of the ETPB-ANN dynamic integrated modelling method for other research purpose are also presented.