Impacts of COVID-19 social distancing policies on water demand: A population dynamics perspective.

ABSTRACT: Social distancing policies (SDPs) implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to temporal and spatial shifts in water demand across cities. Water utilities need to understand these demand shifts to respond to potential operational and water-quality issues. Aided by a fixed-effects model of citywide water demand in Austin, Texas, we explore the impacts of various SDPs (e.g., time after the stay home-work safe order, reopening phases) using daily demand data gathered between 2013 and 2020. Our approach uses socio-technical determinants (e.g., climate, water conservation policy) with SDPs to model water demand, while accounting for spatial and temporal effects (e.g., geographic variations, weekday patterns). Results indicate shifts in behavior of residential and nonresidential d

SUBMITTER: Bakchan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8519786 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature