Introduction
The behavioural model provides simulation of water use using the Behavioural End-use Stochastic Simulator (BESS) of Thyer et al. (2011), described further in the Urban Developer Plugin SRG.
For indoor water uses, the water use simulations for each household are based on the type of water-using appliance and the household occupancy of that household. The difference from the average daily model is that instead of specifying an average daily volume and percentages for each end use, the user specifies the water-using appliance and household occupancy and BESS simulates the water for each individual end-use using the in-built parameters for the water use event dynamics.
BESS uses a diurnal pattern based on Roberts et al. (2005) to vary the probability of water use events occurring throughout the day.
The Behavioural Model Configuration describes how these inputs are utilised by the behavioural model.
For outdoor water use, the behavioural model uses a time series or monthly varying pattern of average daily values, which can be input by the user - similar to the average daily model. For sub-daily outdoor water use, daily values are evenly distributed throughout the day.
Contents
Restrictions
There are restrictions on which node inputs and outputs you can connect together. See Urban Developer node connection rules.
The Behavioural Water Use node is available for Urban Scenarios only.
Node Dependencies
| Node Input | Notes |
|---|---|
| Mains supply | Connect to a mains supply node (if available) (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
| Tank supply | Connect to a tank node (if available) |
| Alternative supply 1 | Connect to an Alternative supply node (if available) (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
| Alternative supply 2 | Connect to an Alternative supply node (if available) (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
As well as the node connections listed in the table above, the Behavioural Water Use node requires that the following inputs are configured:
- Climate inputs
- Diurnal pattern
- Appliance types
- Sampled Appliances & Occupancy (optional, required for the behavioural model with sampled appliances and occupancy only)
The Behavioural Model Configuration describes how these inputs are utilised by the behavioural model.
Node Outputs
| Node Output | Notes |
|---|---|
| Blackwater | Connect to a blackwater stream (if necessary) (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
| Greywater | Connect to a greywater stream (if necessary) (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
| Irrigation/Other | Connect to any other end-use stream. For example, you can track your garden irrigation through this end-use, and link it back to a pervious area node in your model to capture the effects of run-off of irrigating your pervious area. (Not currently implemented in the Urban Developer Plugin) |
Node Properties
| Node Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Number of houses | Specify the number of houses the node represents |
| The following two properties (Occupants per household and End-use appliance type) apply only when the behavioural model configuration is set to fixed appliances and occupancy. When the behavioural model configuration is set to sampled appliances and occupancy, these properties are not used. Refer to Behavioural Model Configuration for details. | |
| Occupants per household | Specify the number of occupants per household. |
| End-use appliance type | For end-use, specify the appliance type (e.g. type of shower, dishwasher, toilet, etc). See indoor water use appliance types in Behavioural model with fixed appliances and occupancy. It is currently not possible to specify an appliance type for the Outdoor end-use. |
| Outdoor average daily demand | Specify the average daily demand using a monthly pattern or a time series. |
| Supply source priorities | For each indoor/outdoor end-use, specify which supply sources are available an order of preference. For example, for the end-use Toilet (illustrated in Figure 2):
Un-checking Use for a supply source specifies that it will not supply that particular end-use. |
| Discharge breakdown | For each indoor/outdoor end-use, specify the percentage of water discharged as blackwater, greywater, or other wastewater. The values will be rescaled so that they sum to 100%. |
User Interface
The Behavioural Water Use node is configured via the node Feature Editor, illustrated below.
Figure 2. Behavioural Water Use node editor.
Average Appliance Demand
The average appliance demand is an option that can be used in conjunction with sampled or fixed appliances and occupancy. Rather than simulating the water consumption for individual appliance usage events by sampling from probability distributions, as described in Capturing Temporal Variability in Indoor Water Use Events, the average values for usage frequency and water consumption are used. The average values are configured in the Appliance Types menu.
The average appliance demand model is enabled using the Use Average Demand check box in the Behavioural Water Use node Feature Editor.
References
Micevski, T., Thyer, M., Kuczera, G. (2011) A Behavioural Approach for Household Outdoor Water Use Modelling. Paper submitted to Water Resources Research (April 2011).
Roberts, P. (2005) 2004 Residential End Use Measurement Study, Final Report: Yarra Valley Water, Victoria.
Thyer, M. A., Duncan, H., Coombes, P., Kuczera, G., & Micevski, T. (2009) A probabilistic behavioural approach for the dynamic modelling of indoor household water use. In H2009: 32nd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: Adapting to Change, 30 November - 3 December 2009, Newcastle, Australia (p. 1059).
Thyer, M., Micevski, T., Kuczera, G., and Coombes, P. (2011) A Behavioural Approach to Stochastic End Use Modelling. Paper presented at Oz Water, 9-11 May 2011, Adelaide.
Acknowledgements
This material has been adapted from:
eWater Cooperative Research Centre (2011) Urban Developer User Guide: Urban Developer v1.0.0, eWater Cooperative Research Centre, Canberra, 29 June 2011. ISBN 978-1-921543-40-1