A Survey of Water Demand Forecasting Procedures on Fixed Army Installations.

Abstract : Current guidelines and procedures for estimating daily average water demand were reviewed and 90 installations were surveyed to determine water service patterns and management practices, including water costs, conservation programs, and contingency plans. Sectors of water installation use as a function of building area were determined. These relationships were used to test and evaluate a linear additive model. It was found that current procedures for estimating water demand contain major discrepancies. Improved water planning guidelines are needed to help predict water demand, formulate water shortage contingency plans, and assess potential water conservation techniques. The survey results indicated that about one third of the respondents needed better tools to estimate future water demand. Most respondents did not have formal contingency plans or water conservation programs. The linear additive model uses categorized building areas (data readily available to installation Facility Engineers) to predict water use sectors. Testing of the model showed that it could effectively predict peacetime water use and be used to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation measures.