Shadi Eskaf | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (original) (raw)

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Water system interconnections provide a means of redistributing water from water systems with exc... more Water system interconnections provide a means of redistributing water from water systems with excess supply or capacity to water systems that need additional water. Interconnection contracts include both the buying and selling of water on a regular basis or for emergency purposes only. It is essential to describe and understand the network of water system interconnections in North Carolina prior to developing an overall policy for water resource management and planning at the state level. Data on community water system (CWS) ...

Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, 2015

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2016

Water pricing can be one of the most effective methods to driving conservation and is also the pr... more Water pricing can be one of the most effective methods to driving conservation and is also the primary mechanism for recovering the revenue that a water utility needs to protect public health and the environment. The Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina and the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter have written a report to help Texas water utilities use their water rates and financial policies to encourage customers to reduce their water use while maintaining the financial viability of the utility.

The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is a member-supported, international, 501(c)3 nonprofit organ... more The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is a member-supported, international, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that sponsors research that enables water utilities, public health agencies, and other professionals to provide safe and affordable drinking water to consumers.

W ater utilities in the United States struggle over how to set policies, design rate structures, ... more W ater utilities in the United States struggle over how to set policies, design rate structures, and implement communication procedures that are effective and appropriate to their customer base. Adding to the complexity of these tasks is that water management requires local planning, and cookie-cutter strategies often fail to consider that customer characteristics and water demand vary from one town to the next, even within the same state or geographic region. For example, the same conservation initiative that succeeds at one utility may fail to reach its conservation goals or costs much more at a neighboring utility, solely because customers in the two communities have different water use patterns. Consequently, the revenue effects of the conservation initiative will be vastly different for the two utilities.

Public Works Management & …, Jan 1, 2009

This article tests the importance of cost, demand, institutional and geographic factors on the bi... more This article tests the importance of cost, demand, institutional and geographic factors on the bills that consumers pay for water and sewer service in North Carolina and the pricing signals utilities send to customers. The authors apply spatial regression models to test whether other factors besides costs drive rate-setting practices. Results indicate that cost factors, operating ratio, temperature, the application of "outside" rates, and utilities’ primary importance on affordable rates affect combined water and sewer bills at average levels of residential consumption. The study also finds that bills are significantly and positively correlated to bills paid in nearby utilities. Community income and the percent of customers below the poverty line are weakly associated with combined bills. However, utilities facing higher growth rates and those that value conservation are no more likely to send stronger pricing signals than others.

Customer water-use data and analyses are essential to understanding water use among different sub... more Customer water-use data and analyses are essential to understanding water use among different subgroups of customers, planning and implementing successful water conservation programs with appropriate water-saving goals, and setting rates that effectively meet utility objectives. By segmenting a customer base by water use and benchmarking consumption over time, utilities can better design and target conservation programs and rate structures. Water-use indicators can be used to categorize each customer’s water use patterns over a period of time and identify subgroups of customers with similar patterns. These subgroups go beyond the sometimes ambiguous and generic classification of “residential” or “commercial, industrial and institutional (CII)” customers, to a more precise categorization of individual customers based on their own water-use patterns. This method segments a customer base further within the larger and more traditional classifications to help utilities better understand customer consumption patterns. Using the proposed indicators in this document will guide a utility to divide its customers into several subgroups based on unique water-use patterns.

Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, 2015

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2016

Public Works Management & …, Jan 1, 2009

Journal of virus eradication, Jun 1, 2023

w h i c h i n c l u d e s t h e C i t y o f S a n A n t o n i o. R e c e n t d e c l i n e s i n ... more w h i c h i n c l u d e s t h e C i t y o f S a n A n t o n i o. R e c e n t d e c l i n e s i n s p r i n g f lo w s f e d b y t h e a q u i f e r t h a t w a t e r t h e h a b i t a t o f s e v e r a l e n d a n g e r e d s p e c i e s

Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Feb 1, 2023

This paper estimates demand for residential water using household level data during the introduct... more This paper estimates demand for residential water using household level data during the introduction of seasonal pricing. This pricing regime generated clear and large changes in marginal price which we use to explore the issue of heterogeneous responses to marginal price. We provide evidence that the adoption of seasonal pricing led to a substantial decrease in usage and that this shift was largely driven by less wealthy households. Furthermore, our empirical model also suggests that less wealthy households with historically low and flat usage may be sensitive to price, raising potential affordability concerns.

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, May 1, 2021

Abstract Public utilities may respond to demand or supply fluctuations by adjusting prices to rat... more Abstract Public utilities may respond to demand or supply fluctuations by adjusting prices to ration quantity. This approach's efficacy and distributional impacts depend on households' heterogeneous price sensitivity, which we estimate in a market for residential water usage. Our household-level panel data features a large change in marginal water prices and a novel measure of local hydrological stress. Contrary to prior research, we find that heavy-usage households are more price sensitive than other households, and price elasticity is largely invariant to household wealth. These findings suggest that price-based rationing can be an effective tool to reduce water usage.

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2011

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses

mHealth

Background: Young adults living with HIV (YLWH) have suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral thera... more Background: Young adults living with HIV (YLWH) have suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and HIV care outcomes. Mobile health technologies are increasingly used to deliver interventions to address HIV health outcomes. However, not all YLWH have equal and consistent access to mobile technologies. Methods: Using our novel Mobile Technology Vulnerability Scale (MTVS) to evaluate how vulnerable an individual feels with regard to their personal access to mobile technology in the past 6 months, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey with 271 YLWH (18-29 years) in the US to evaluate the relationships between MTVS and self-reported ART adherence. Results: Participants reported changes in phone numbers (25%), stolen (14%) or lost (22%) phones, and disconnections of phone service due to non-payment (39%) in the past 6 months. On a scale of 0 to 1 (0 having no mobile technology vulnerability and 1 having complete mobile technology vulnerability), participants had a mean MTVS of 0.33 (SD =0.26). Black and financially constrained participants had the highest MTVS, which was significantly higher that other racial/ethnic and financially non-constrained groups, respectively. Higher MTVS was significantly associated with ART non-adherence and nonpersistence. Conclusions: Findings suggest the need to measure MTVS to recognize pitfalls when using mobile health interventions and identify populations whose inconsistent mobile technology access may be related to worse health outcomes.

This article tests the importance of cost, demand, institutional, and geographic factors on the b... more This article tests the importance of cost, demand, institutional, and geographic factors on the bills that consumers pay for water and sewer service in North Carolina and the pricing signals that utilities send to customers. The authors apply spatial regression models to test whether other factors besides costs drive rate-setting practices. Results indicate that cost factors, operating ratio, temperature, the application of “outside” rates, and utilities’ primary importance on affordable rates affect combined water and sewer bills at average levels of residential consumption. The study also finds that bills are significantly and positively correlated to bills paid in nearby utilities. Community income and the percent of customers below the poverty line are weakly associated with combined bills. However, utilities facing higher growth rates and those that value conservation are no more likely to send stronger pricing signals than others.

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2011

45 Every utility serves a unique customer base with its own water use and revenuegeneration patte... more 45 Every utility serves a unique customer base with its own water use and revenuegeneration patterns. Knowing its customers in detail helps a water provider customize policies and communication strategies not only for the customer base but also for smaller, targeted groups. This article introduces a relatively inexpensive way that utilities can use existing billing data to learn more about customer use patterns and applies this methodology at five North Carolina utilities. Developing smarter revenue and water use analytics that take into account changes in use behavior helps utilities be proactive in planning for resources changes (and the resulting financial implications) and be more effective in their communications and marketing. By moving away from engaging with residential customers as one homogeneous mass and instead treating them as groups of customers with distinct habits and values, utilities can use targeted messaging and outreach to bring customers on board with new policy rollouts. Restoring Santa Monica’s MTBE-contaminated groundwater supply Holly Shorney-Darby, Hala Titus, Myriam Cardenas, and Gil Borboa

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses

Journal of Personalized Medicine, 2022

Frequent viral load testing is necessary during analytical treatment interruptions (ATIs) in HIV ... more Frequent viral load testing is necessary during analytical treatment interruptions (ATIs) in HIV cure-directed clinical trials, though such may be burdensome and inconvenient to trial participants. We implemented a national, cross-sectional survey in the United States to examine the acceptability of a novel home-based peripheral blood collection device for HIV viral load testing. Between June and August 2021, we distributed an online survey to people with HIV (PWH) and community members, biomedical HIV cure researchers and HIV care providers. We performed descriptive analyses to summarize the results. We received 73 survey responses, with 51 from community members, 12 from biomedical HIV cure researchers and 10 from HIV care providers. Of those, 51 (70%) were cisgender men and 50 (68%) reported living with HIV. Most (>80% overall) indicated that the device would be helpful during ATI trials and they would feel comfortable using it themselves or recommending it to their patients/p...

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2011

Implications of residential irrigation metering for customers' expenditures and demand MARY WYATT... more Implications of residential irrigation metering for customers' expenditures and demand MARY WYATT TIGER, SHADI ESKAF, AND JEFFREY A. HUGHES M unicipal water utilities across the United States are serving clean drinking water to residential customers to apply to lawns and plants via inground (sprinkler) irrigation systems. This nonagricultural outdoor water demand (defined in this article as municipal irrigation) presents many challenges for water providers. The seasonal nature of the demand drives significant peaks in summertime water use for many US utilities. These peaks require water suppliers to invest in costly source, treatment, and distribution capacity expansions to continue to meet the peak demands of their customers. It is somewhat paradoxical that even as municipal irrigation water demand helps to drive increases in capital costs for water systems, such use is usually considered discretionary for many residential customers during times of water shortage and is more price-sensitive than other end uses of water. To accommodate the larger volume and flow rate of water desired for residential irrigation systems and to relieve irrigators of unfounded wastewater charges, some utilities offer their customers the option of installing a second water meter (defined here as an irrigation meter) to meter outdoor water use. A backflow prevention device usually is installed with the irrigation meter to prevent accidental contamination of the distribution water system. The residential customer is billed for water use through the two meters, i.e., the irrigation meter for outdoor water use and the standard meter for water flow into the home. Although utilities offer similar services to their nonresidential customers, the focus of this article is residential irrigation metering.

Journal - American Water Works Association, 2011