Analysis of per capita water use patterns among communities with varying degrees of commercial activity

Water supply managers often look for easily applied metrics to determine where water use can be curtailed. Unfortunately, the one-size-fits-all mentality comes with a price of failing to fully grasp the consequences decision-making based on such metrics. One issue that water supply regulator like to use is per capita water use. Per capital water use is often used to show where there is "wasted" water use, such as excessive irrigation. However such a metric may not be truly applicable depending on other economic factors. A heavily industrial area may add to apparent per capital use, but actually is an economic development activity. The focus of this project is to look at various water utilities and their per capital usage with the intent of discerning whether or not a better metric could be developed that consider the economic development activities of the region and water use.