Exploring the effects of domestic water management measures to water conservation attitudes using agent based modelling

Authored by Ifigeneia Koutiva, Christos Makropoulos

Date Published: 2017

DOI: 10.2166/ws.2016.161

Sponsors: European Union European Social Fund

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: ODD

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

The urban water system's sustainable evolution requires managing both water supply and water demand within a complete urban water cycle framework. Such an approach, however, requires tools to analyse and simulate the complete system including both physical and cultural environments. One of the main challenges, in this regard, is the design and development of tools able to simulate the society's water demand behaviour and the way policy measures affect it. The effects of these policy measures are a function of personal attitudes that subsequently lead to the formation of people's behaviours. This work focuses on the exploration of social impact theory on water conservation attitudes of urban households. A model is designed and implemented using agent based modelling. The developed model's ability to represent social structure and mechanisms of social influences is tested against historical data from the 1988-1994 drought of Athens, Greece as a case study.

Tags

Simulation Opinion formation Agent based modelling social impact theory Water conservation Protocol Demand Social impact Urban water demand management