Effects of COVID-19 Restrictions on Water Consumption in the Padua Water Distribution Network (Italy)

The recent COVID-19 pandemic induced many countries to implement restrictive measures for limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the case of Italy, a nationwide stop of all institutional, commercial, and industrial activities was imposed in early 2020, with significant effects on people’s lifestyle. The study proposed aims at assessing the impacts of the restrictions adopted to limit the spread of COVID-19 on water consumption with reference to the water distribution network of Padua (Italy). From an operational standpoint, flow data collected at the main points of the network before and during lockdown were considered and employed to obtain the time series of the total water consumption of three District Metered Areas (DMAs) with different characteristics. Analyses at multiple temporal scales were carried out for each DMA to: 1) evaluate the trend of the daily total consumption before and during lockdown; 2) compare daily profiles of the total consumption observed during lockdown against the ones of the period before lockdown; and 3) assess the correlation between day types and the daily profiles observed. The results obtained showed that lockdown had the effect of decreasing total consumption in the city of Padua of about 10% when compared to the same period of the previous year, with differences based on the nature of each DMA considered. Moreover, 94% of total consumption daily profiles observed during lockdown tended to fit the weekday/holiday profiles observed before lockdown, independently of day type. The findings of the study can be well representative of several contexts of medium-sized cities characterized by a variety of activities and different types of water consumption.