Water Demand Forecasting

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the use of information regarding the structure of water demands for forecasting purposes. Boland (1997) provides the following definition of forecasting: “Forecasting the level of any future activity, such as water use, can be divided into two tasks: (1) explanation and (2) prediction. Explanation of water use usually takes the form of a model that relates the past observed level of water use to various variables. Replacing past values of the explanatory variables with those expected in the future produces a prediction of future water use. This forecast is conditioned on several levels of assumptions including the accuracy of the water use model, the applicability of that model to the future, and the accuracy of postulated future values for explanatory variables.” (pp. 162–3).