An Information Approach to Deriving Domestic Water Demand: An Application to Bogotá, Colombia

This work presents a new model for studying water demand or use under an alternative pricing structure. The model takes into account the inequality shown by the distribution function of water usage: a large amount of water used by a small number of households. Rather than discard these extreme events (outliers), the model permits the description of the whole distribution function. The model builds on information by using extreme physical information theory, which provides a methodology to construct a dynamic equation describing water-use behavior. The solution to the dynamic equation gives the distribution function of water use, allowing calculations to be carried out in different scenarios for indicators such as the price elasticity of demand. The model is used to examine a case study of water use in Bogotá, Colombia.