Browsing by Author "Borges, Ana"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- A strategy to assess water meter performancePublication . Cordeiro, Clara; Borges, Ana; Ramos, Maria do RosárioApparent water losses can be problematic to water companies’ revenues. This type of loss is very difficult to detect and quantify and is often associated with water meter anomalies. This study was motivated by a water company’s challenge that links a decrease in water consumption to water meters’ malfunction. The aim is to develop a strategy to detect decreasing water usage patterns, contributing to meter performance assessment. The basis of the approach is a combination of statistical methods. First, the time series of billed water consumption is decomposed using Seasonal-Trend decomposition based on Loess. Next, breakpoint analysis is performed on the seasonally adjusted time series. After that, the Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator are used to analyze periods of progressive decrease changes in water consumption, defined by breakpoints. A quantitative indicator of this change is proposed. The strategy was successfully applied to eight-time series of water consumption from the Algarve, Portugal.
- Uncovering abnormal water consumption patterns for sustainability’s sake: a statistical approachPublication . Borges, Ana; Cordeiro, Clara; Ramos, Maria do RosárioMonitoring domestic water usage may help the water utilities uncover abnormal water consumption. In this context, it is necessary to improve and develop tools based on data analysis of households’ meter readings. This study contributes to this goal by using a statistical methodology that detects abnormal water consumption patterns, namely, significant increases or decreases. This approach relies on a combination of methods that analyse billed water consumption time series. The first step is to decompose the time series using Seasonal-Trend decomposition based on Loess. Next, breakpoint analysis is performed on the seasonally adjusted time series to look for changes in the pattern over time. Afterwards, the Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator are applied to assess whether there are significant increases or decreases in water consumption. The strategy is applied to water consumption data from the Algarve, Portugal, successfully detecting breakpoints associated with significant increasing or decreasing trends.