SPACE-TIME DYNAMICS OF SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL WATER CONSUMPTION IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
Analytics
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Abstract
Water availability has become a more significant economic and policy issue in contemporary America. Although emerging as an attractive tool to water authorities, demand-side water management in urbanized areas is more complicated due to the high complexity of coupled human and natural (mainly water and land) systems and great heterogeneity of households and neighborhoods in urban environments. A better understanding of how water is used by whom and in what ways water savings can be realized will be necessary and useful for planning, implementing, and evaluating demand-side alternatives. The purpose of this research is to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of water use or demand, and of its relations with various factors in a fast-growing urban environment of Charlotte, North Carolina. Using the water billing datasets over the 2000-2010 period for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, this dissertation conducts a multidimensional investigation on the state, pattern, and process of the subject – single family residential (SFR) water consumption. It first explores the decennial evolution of SFR water usage and its association and sensitivity with historical weather conditions in Charlotte. Next, it examines the historically contingent effects of sociodemographic and housing factors on yearly SFR water consumption as well as the spatial heterogeneity and dependence in these effects. Lastly, monthly SFR water usage per household at the neighborhood level during the 2007-2009 period is explained by various factors (pricing, water usage restriction, weather, sociodemographic and housing characteristics) within a spatial econometric modeling framework.The results show that SFR water consumption is unevenly distributed across Charlotte and some neighborhoods (especially in southern Charlotte) consumed considerably more water in summer than winter; spatial variability in climatic sensitivity of neighborhoods is evident; the historical states of explanatory factors have more influence on SFR water usage in 2008 than their temporal change between 2000 and 2008 and those effects vary across space; the importance of price, non-price policy, mean temperature and precipitation in affecting monthly SFR water consumption during 2007-2009 is highlighted after spatial heterogeneity is accounted for.This research is vital to the enhancement of the local community’s knowledge. The multidimensional analyses will not only offer first-hand evidence for answering critical questions on weather sensitivity and driving factors related to local water usage, but also help identify new research questions, formulate novel hypotheses, and introduce more opportunities for disentangling the problems in water management in a comprehensive manner.