Application of Spatial Autocorrelation Techniques in Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Domestic Water Consumption in the City of Qom at the Household Level

Due to the scarcity and crisis of water resources, the issue of optimal use and management of it is ofparticular importance. Improper pattern of water consumption in different areas of a city can be one ofthe cases that cause water crisis in a city. Therefore, there is necessary to apply methods in order toidentify consumption patterns in different areas of the city. The purpose of this study is to investigatethe spatial pattern of water consumption in Qom city using spatial autocorrelation techniques. For thisreason, the consumption of 117 neighborhoods of Qom city during 2017 was collected and theaverage household water consumption for each neighborhood was calculated. Moran index was usedto identify the type of consumption pattern and local Moran index and hot spot technique were usedfor spatial distribution of the consumption pattern. The results of spatial autocorrelation showed thatthe largest cluster pattern of water consumption in Qom city occurred in summer with the value ofMoran index (I = 0.24). Also, the highest significance of the index (z = 7.02) was observed in thisseason. In both local and hot spot analysis, it was observed that high consumption has a high clusterpattern compared to low consumption. Spatially, high consumption clusters were observed in thecentral and western neighborhoods of the city and low consumption clusters were observed in thesouthern, eastern and northern neighborhoods of the city. Temporally, high consumption clusters wereobserved in central and western neighborhoods in summer and winter, respectively and lowconsumption clusters were observed in cold seasons.