Abstract
This work analyses different water demand management options to assess the monetary losses associated to demand deficits in a region. Diverse water demands priorities were simulated to compare their cost. At this point, the cost to reach a hypothetical Demands Ideal Scenario (DIS) in which water demands are absolutely covered was also considered. It should be a key milestone to be properly developed in the European water management spectrum, since existing normative (the Water Framework Directive, WFD) is mainly focused on the ecological status of water bodies. The assessment was made by applying the Physical Hydronomics (PH) methodology, based on a thermodynamic property called exergy, which evaluates the available energy contained in a water flow, including both its physical and chemical features. A representative area located in the Segre River, a tributary of the Ebro River (Spain), was taken as a case study. Results show that the present priority order when supplying the water demands has the lowest Cost to Guarantee Demands (CGD) that include those derived from the use of water technologies to provide the remaining water.
