Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Characterize Water End Uses

Abstract Submission: The efficiency of water demand management can be improved by tailoring programs, such as water pricing and conservation campaigns, to specific water use behaviors of consumers. Characterizing individual water consumption is evasive, as individual water use is not adequately explained by demographic factors, but is affected in unpredictable ways by existing infrastructure, community norms, lifestyles, and attitudes. Research is needed that extends beyond generating summary statistics around water consumption patterns and explore the individual mindsets and defining events that lead to non-average water use. Quantitative approaches can be applied to record water consumption for end uses, and qualitative research approaches can be applied to explore cognitive and motivational processes in water use behaviors. Quantitative and qualitative approaches should be integrated to co-generate insight about water consumption. This research combines quantitative end use data and qualitative data collected through interviews to explore how water use beliefs affect water end use. Personalized labeled end use datasets were collected at four households using an internet-of-things water diary and smart water meters. Personalized end use datasets specify the person, fixture, timing, and volume associated with each water use event. Interviews were conducted to identify participants' water use beliefs, including how they think about water and water use activities, and events that affected their water use beliefs. Analysis was conducted to explore how water use beliefs affect the volume of water consumed for end uses. Results demonstrate that critical events including municipal water shortages, exposure to diverse paradigms around water use, and the COVID-19 pandemic shaped beliefs around water use activities, leading to unique patterns in personal water end uses. This research demonstrates an integrated quantitative and qualitative approach to develop new insight into the beliefs that drive personal water consumption.

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