District level water metering data used to estimate seasonal population change in South West England

Abstract

England’s South West peninsula is an area of high seasonal migration. These tourist driven seasonal population fluctuations are not captured in traditional census datasets. The work presented aims to use water supply data to infer these population fluctuations. The local water authority South West Water (SWW) is the single supplier of all drinking water used in Devon and Cornwall, South West England. As a single supplier SWW has provided water usage data at a district metering area (DMA) level, with complete coverage of the South West peninsula. DMAs cover approximately 1500 households per area and using data at this level avoids incomplete coverage from dwellings not connected to smart meters. This forms part of the ESRC funded WatPop project, using SWW smart meter data to infer seasonal and spatial distribution of small area tourist driven population fluctuations. The work shows how the water usage data can be combined with UK census data to identify ‘hot spots’ of high seasonal population change, this allows the water supply authority to better understand consumer behaviour within their network as well as providing societal and academic benefits.