AWWA SOURCES55612

This report compared a three-year database of 44 cities with water conservation plans with 113 cities without plans or a total of 5,600 data points. The study used gallons per capita per day [GPCD] as measured each month as the dependent variable. The method for evaluating effective water conservation plans is to try to explain water use through weather and policy variables. The policy variables are "yes/no" variables, based on whether the cities with conservation plans use this specific strategy or not. The data include those cities without conservation plans. The results revealed that each policy (leak detection, meter repair or replacement, literature distribution, water reuse and unaccounted for water), saves a quantifiable volume of water per person in Texas. In a second part of the analysis, identifying good municipal conservation programs begins with the dependent GPCD variable. Three physical independent weather variables are used to determine an efficiency frontier for each month over the 1996 through 1998 period. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) software was used to calculate which cities have the lowest water use and precipitation, taking average temperature and evaporation into consideration relative to all other cities. This step identified six cities that consistently had the lowest water use in each base, peak or transition months: Edinburg, Angleton, Mission, Sanger, Midland, El Paso. Each city was examined to identify water conservation management practices. The cities with consistent monthly high efficiency scores are Edinburg, Angleton, Mission, Sanger, Midland, and El Paso. The methodology used in this report has a combination of multivariate regression, data envelopment analysis, and case studies. Program evaluators can use the DEA methodology to evaluate and rank many different types of decision-making units as well as to identify cost-effective strategies. Future goals of this analysis are to obtain municipal records (full-time employee and budget information, percentage of unaccounted for water, and GPCD information) and specific conservation practice data, (such as the quantity of conservation literature distributed, the number of meters repaired and replaced, number of leaks detected, and amount of water recycled) to use as input and outputs. Analysts identifying cost effective programs or those that obtain the greatest output while minimizing the resource input can use these or other variables. Includes tables.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

01/01/2002

Number of Pages:

17

File Size:

1 file , 250 KB