Abstract:
Freshwater is the naturally occurring water on earth except for brackish water and
seawater. Water Scarcity has affected freshwater resources of all the countries including
Pakistan and has become one of the largest global risks. This situation is becoming
worse day by day as it is expected that the urban population will exceed the rural
population by 2050 due to rapid urbanization. Hence, water resource management in
urban areas is also essential like other water-consuming sectors i.e agriculture,
industrial. Water resource management can be done by managing both supply and
consumption sides. A lot of work has been done on management of supply but due to
the lack of proper water metering systems at the household level (in many countries
like Pakistan), consumption side management is a challenging task. A framework is
required to forecast water consumption along with unmet demand, and for testing of
new water-saving rules.
A Water Supply and Consumption Framework based on bottom-up agentbased modeling and fluid dynamics modeling have been proposed. Its primary goal is
to simulate water consumption and the unmet demand of urban households. It
simulates the water consumption of a house by simulating its inhabitant's behavior and
interactions and also simulate a water distribution system to see its effects on the water
consumption of a neighborhood. Actors (houses, blocks, inhabitants, water storage
tanks, tube wells) are modeled as agents while the water distribution system is modeled
using fluid dynamics. The global effect that emerges due to the interaction of these
agents helps water authorities to devise new policies/strategies to fight against the
problem of water scarcity. The functionality of the framework is demonstrated using
a case study of NUST water resources and residential areas.
The main purpose of this research is to use M&S tools and methods to help
water regulatory authorities to form effective strategies/plans.
