3: Demand-Side Management
In Part Three, you will shift from supply-side to demand-side management. When we manage the water demand, which is to say the water “need” or water “consumption” you tend to lessen the need for supply-side management. That is to say, if you can get people to need less water, you do not need to go out and find more water for them to use. In Part Three, we will cover:
- Regulations that affect conservation in California
- Water loss
- Water rates
- Indoor water use and conservation
- Outside water use and conservation
- CII water use and conservation
- Social marketing campaigns
Everything listed above addresses ways of decreasing demand for water, whether it is a regulation that mandates watering schedules, an aggressive leak detection program run by a water district, higher water rates for higher consumption, or toilet rebates.
There are many ways to control the demand for water. One of the most effective ways is with regulation. This frequently isn’t what people expect to or want to hear, but between statewide legislation, statewide mandates from the Water Resources Control Board, and California Building Code requirements, demand was substantially regulated during the drought in California. In this section, you will:
- Analyze potential outcomes of the requirements of SBX7-7
- Identify the prohibited measures by the State Water Resources Control Board
- Interpret requirements of building codes in California for water conservation
-
- 3.2: Water Loss
- If you were asked to picture water loss, you would probably think of a leak. Water is definitely lost through leaks. In this section, you will learn about types of leaks, but there are other ways systems lose water as well. As a general rule, you can estimate the amount of loss in a system by subtracting total consumption from total production.
-
- 3.3: Water Rates
- Retail water suppliers generally include both a fixed and variable (volumetric) charge on a water bill. The fixed charge is the same for each month regardless of the water consumption because it is based on the size of the pipe coming in and the costs that remain the same for the water agency; the variable rate is volumetric and based on consumption (water use).
-
- 3.4: Indoor Water Use
- When you start to talk to people about conservation, they generally want to discuss ways of reducing their indoor water consumption, particularly bathing less. This is a problem - most of the water in the residential sector in California is used outside! And, frankly, no one in conservation wants to decrease basic hygiene of the general public. Still, indoor water use and conservation is not a bad place to start because it is a place people are very familiar with.
-
- 3.6: CII Water Use
- What do a car mechanic and an aerospace engineer have in common? They both work in the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) section, which is very diverse in terms of water use. Using water for cleaning as a car mechanic or water for manufacture of aerospace parts are very different uses. As we study CII customers, you’ll be able to bring together what you’ve learned about indoor and outdoor conservation and apply it to the workplace.
-
- 3.7: Social Marketing Campaigns
- As you have seen, there are major water infrastructure projects that can be relied on to a certain extent to bring water to the thirsty parts of California. But how can you decrease the amount of water that is needed in the first place? This is called managing demand. You’ve learned a variety of tools from regulation to restrict water use or limit waste, to building codes that require more efficient devices to water loss detection to conservation programs.
Thumbnail: The spillway at Monticello Dam, Lake Berryessa. (Public Domain; Jeremybrooks via Wikipedia)