PLANNING SITE‐SPECIFIC WATER‐DEMAND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Water-demand management is a pro-active approach to water conservation, which considers water-consumption 'needs' as 'demands' rather than requirements. Taking into account a variety of engineering strategies to reduce urban water consumption, this research discusses the use of a tool for developing a master plan for site-specific implementation. The tool links the characteristics of urban areas (engineering, economic and social) with the applicability of particular water-demand management strategies within a fuzzy logic framework, to provide spatially-sensitive decision support - both at a strategic and an application level. The initial results, under various user-defined scenarios, are presented and discussed. It is argued that decision-support tools are beneficial in assisting the water industry to move towards a more pro-active approach to urban water management, similar to the approach which has already been adopted by the Telecommunication and Energy sector.