Water demand modelling using evolutionary computation techniques: integrating water equity and justice for realization of the sustainable development goals

Oluwaseun Oyebode; Damilola E Babatunde; Chukwuka G Monyei; Olubayo M Babatunde

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02796

Water demand modelling using evolutionary computation techniques: integrating water equity and justice for realization of the sustainable development goals

Heliyon. 2019 Nov 21;5(11):e02796. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02796. eCollection 2019 Nov.

Authors

Oluwaseun Oyebode^{1

2}, Damilola E Babatunde³, Chukwuka G Monyei^{4

5

6}, Olubayo M Babatunde^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Research in Environmental, Coastal and Hydrological Engineering (CRECHE), Department of Civil Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4014, South Africa.
² Royal HaskoningDHV, Woodmead, Johannesburg 2191, South Africa.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Covenant University, Sango Ota, Nigeria.
⁴ Energi Consults Limited, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ Gidia Oaks Centre for Energy Research, Lagos, Nigeria.
⁶ Big Data Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Big-DEAL), University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom.
⁷ Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
⁸ AB-OLUS and associates, Lagos, Nigeria.

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to establish and classify the diverse ways in which evolutionary computation (EC) techniques have been employed in water demand modelling and to identify important research challenges and future directions. This review also investigates the potentials of conventional EC techniques in influencing water demand management policies beyond an advisory role while recommending strategies for their use by policy-makers with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in perspective. This review ultimately proposes a novel integrated water demand and management modelling framework (IWDMMF) that enables water policy-makers to assess the wider impact of water demand management decisions through the principles of egalitarianism, utilitarianism, libertarianism and sufficientarianism. This is necessary to ensure that water policy decisions incorporate equity and justice.

Keywords: Applied computing; Artificial intelligence; Civil engineering; Computing methodology; Environmental science; Evolutionary computation; Hydrology; Process modeling; Sustainable development goals; Water demand; Water equity; Water justice.

Publication types

Review