Water saving mechanisms supporting urban planning

ABSTRACT This research evaluates the use of water saving equipment in vertical buildings, in order to minimize the impact of water demand increasing over five years. The area studied is a district of Campina Grande city (PB) named Catolé. A survey was developed of some reducing devices that could contribute to the water demand decrease in the studied buildings. Water Demand Management recommends the use of water saving devices in buildings to decrease water consumption. The main goal was to evaluate the reduction of the water use caused by water savers in residential buildings and to try to establish parameters for the new buildings. Those parameters can be used for urban planning guidelines and laws to minimize water consumption. Therefore, four different types of water saving devices were selected and the economic and efficiency aspects of implementation were analyzed. Some scenarios were simulated for unfinished buildings (under construction) to evaluate the future water consumption. The results obtained show that the use of water saving devices can reduce water consumption in vertical buildings by 83.26%. Therefore, it has been concluded that it is possible to minimize the water scarcity problem using management tools that can contribute to rational use and also improve society’s awareness of natural resources in urban areas.