UKRI Economic and Social Research Council logo

Leading UK water conservation through innovative technology and behaviour change

Start date

September 2024

End date

September 2025

Overview

The UK is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with a staggering deficit of 4 million litres per day (England) predicted by 2050. As domestic supply cuts and soaring prices become a reality, the University of Surrey is stepping up to confront this existential threat head-on with a new ESRC IAA funded project aimed at revolutionising how we manage water consumption in our homes. 

The project builds on previous successful research led by Dr Pablo Pereira-Doel, which focused on understanding and mitigating water consumption through in-shower technology. This work showed that demand-side water use can be reduced, without impacting consumer experience, through technology-assisted behaviour change.

Building on existing collaborative networks, the team will undertake three interlinked work packages that expand Surrey's test-bed activities beyond showering (e.g., toilets, kitchens) to cover 'whole-home' water usage, and engage with water stakeholders to understand industry/consumer needs and collectively develop national solutions.

Team

Planned Impact

The project has three main objectives:  

  • To enhance the University's Living Lab infrastructure, creating an agile testbed for innovative water conservation technologies develop to tackle these and future, emergent priorities.
  • To engage stakeholders in co-producing a bid for the multimillion-pound OFWAT 2025 Water Efficiency Fund, to implement a new, nationwide technology-assisted behaviour change programme to save water, protecting UK domestic supply. 
  • To collaboratively develop a White Paper outlining a national strategy for reducing domestic water consumption and co-create a domestic water impact agenda document, to drive collaborative activities in this area.

The urgency of this initiative cannot be overstated. With the threat of water shortages looming, the University of Surrey is committed to leading the charge in finding sustainable solutions. 

A high profile stakeholder workshop in October 2024 will kick start this initiative.

"With ESRC IAA funding, we will expand our infrastructure and impact activities to apply our behaviour led approach more comprehensively, and so lead the whole-home water conservation field. We will engage with industry stakeholders to create pathways to impact by understanding needs and promoting easy, unobtrusive behaviour changes to save UK consumers money and protect the water supply."  

Dr Benjamin Gardner