event
Friday 24 Nov 2017: Socio-cultural Drivers of Water Demand in Student Residential Accommodation
Professor Chad Staddon - UWE Bristol
Harrison 170 14:30-15:30
Abstract: In 2012 UWE, Bristol entered into partnership with Bristol Water to initiate a longitudinal, multimethod study of water consumption by students in first year accommodations on the main UWE campus at Frenchay, Bristol. Now in its fifth cycle (each runs from September to June, following the academic year) of this study we are in a position to report on patterns of water consumption, underlying socio-economic drivers and the impacts (or not) of both “hard” (new fixtures such as low flow showerheads) and “soft” (conservation messaging) attempts at achieving greater water savings. So far, one of the “surprise” findings has been that behavioural adaptation (“bounce back”) to hard interventions can easily offset any initial water savings. We have also found that our growing dataset has considerable application in facilities management as well as water conservation programming.
About the speaker: Raised in Vancouver, Canada and educated in Canada and the USA, Chad has worked and researched in North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe and, to a lesser extent, Asia and Africa. His key areas of expertise are resource economics and policy, water conservation and water related technology and engineering for urban resilience. His current teaching is almost entirely in the areas of water resource efficiency, water services in the developing world and water-related resilience. Chad has over 60 publications, has given more than 100 lectures and seminars worldwide and has held research grants from Canadian, US, UK and EU sources. He is currently Director of the International Water Security Network (www.watersecuritynetwork.org), a 5 year research programme generously supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
