SWITCH Project in Zaragoza

Actions

To get it, a group of actions divided in four lines are implemented:

  1. Distribution System
  2. Residents
  3. Households
  4. Learning alliances

Actions in the distribution system.

  • Control in the evolution of water consumption in every single sector every hour, day and month
  • Information on the evolution of the pressure in the distribution system in relation to the consumption both in the main branch and in the service points of the buildings, and monitoring of buildings with different height, different number of households and with/without rupture tanks.
  • Monitoring of consumption in municipal buildings and garden areas (meters will be placed when necessary).
  • Evaluation of water consumption in every target sector and of all the meters according to the activity (domestic, commercial, gardening, air-conditioning, etc). These evaluations will be made every year to check improvements in the reduction of consumption and non measured water.
  • Development of proposals to value physical and commercial leaks in the municipal distribution network.
  • Assessment of the evolution of consumption not measured yearly.
  • Boost the use of leaking control systems in the distribution network of the ACTUR.

Actions addressed to the residents.

  • Study the evolution of pressure within the buildings according to consumption and section.
  • Control the need of rupture tanks in buildings, according to the minimum value of pressure at the inner distribution systems.
  • Control of the evolution of the biologic quality of the water supply in rupture tanks and households.
  • Assessment of the economic impact derived from the elimination of the rupture tanks.
  • Research on the margin of error when reading the analogic meters in comparison with the digital meters.
  • Advice to residents about the most adequate pumping water system
  • Evaluation of the use of digital counters for measuring water in the households.
  • Boost and evaluation of the evolution of consumption in the municipal buildings (offices, sport entities, schools and social centres), taking into account the technical and formative improvements made.

Actions in the households (domestic field).

  • Distribution of forms and cards to identify the distribution of household consumption.
  • Visit to 200 homes of the ACTUR previously chosen (a representative sample), to set up saving devices in taps and showers. Forms and cards will be handed out to know consumption distribution in the households.
  • Training in good practices of water consumption at home for the residents of the 200 households of the ACTUR previously chosen. Forms and cards will be handed out to know consumption distribution in the households.
  • Monitoring of household consumption in the 200 homes of the ACTUR previously chosen, to be used as a representative sample.
  • Evolution of consumption in the 600 households studied through the three monthly readings made by the municipality.
  • Evaluation of the average household consumption in the ACTUR, carrying out a comparative survey on the impact of the different consumption measures and the average consumption in every case.

Learning Alliances

A Learning Alliance is a group of organizations forming part of a given system to carry out relevant innovations to a higher scale. The most representative this alliance is, the best it will catch the organizational complexities that form the innovation system.

One of the objectives of SWITCH Project is to establish learning alliances allowing all the partners of the project to spread their knowledge, making possible a sharing of experiences in different knowledge areas, showing the good practices implemented and the solutions found to different problems related to water management in cities.