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 (end-use) 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 sub-daily diurnal pattern based on Roberts et al. (2005) to vary the probability of water use events occurring throughout the day.
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
Node Dependencies
The Behavioural Water Use node requires that the following inputs are configured through the Urban Developer Options:
- Climate inputs
- Diurnal pattern
- Appliance types
- Sampled Appliances & Occupancy (optional, required for the behavioural model with sampled appliances and occupancy only)
The allocation and application of these parameters is further described in the Urban Settings section in the Urban Developer Plugin User Guide and the Behavioural Model Configuration section in the Urban Developer Plugin SRG.
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 Properties
| Node Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Number of houses | Specify the number of houses the node represents (this will be 1 if applying the node as a template for an Urban Combination Configuration run) |
| Occupants per house | Specify the number of occupants per household (applies only when the behavioural model configuration is set to Appliances. When the behavioural model configuration is set to Sampled appliances and occupancy, these properties are grayed out in the user interface. Refer to section 2. Urban Settings for details.) |
| Average appliance demand | Optional, but is more likely to be enabled Average values for usage frequency and water consumption are used, rather than simulating the water consumption for individual appliance usage events by sampling from the probability distributions set up under the Urban Developer Options described in section 2. Urban Settings. 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. |
| End-use appliance type | Indoor end-use includes showers, taps and dishwashers, toilet and dishwashers as appliance types. Specifications for indoor water use appliance types are set under the Urban Developer Options described in section 2. Urban Settings. Pool is currently the only end-use available under Outdoor end-use |
| Outdoor average daily demand | This typically represents a seasonal variation in water use. The average daily demand can be specified using a single value, a time series, a function or a monthly pattern. By default a monthly pattern is applied. |
| 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 1):
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 Irrigation/other wastewater. The values will be re-scaled so that they sum to 100%. |
User Interface
The Behavioural Water Use node is configured via the node Feature Editor, illustrated below.
Figure 1. 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.
References
Roberts, P. (2005) 2004 Residential End Use Measurement Study, Final Report: Yarra Valley Water, Victoria.
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