Participants

Daniel Veasey

Aditya Banerjee

Danial Ho

Trond Vlot

Sean Moylan

Kirk Langridge

Scott Sam

Perth Modern School

AimAim

Our aim is to look for any direct Our aim is to look for any direct correlations between socio-economic correlations between socio-economic status and water consumption rates. Our status and water consumption rates. Our hypothesis is that water consumption hypothesis is that water consumption rates will be higher in suburbs with rates will be higher in suburbs with higher socio-economic status. We hope higher socio-economic status. We hope to do this by using data from water to do this by using data from water corporation and the Perth Social Atlas corporation and the Perth Social Atlas 2006. We will then put the data into 2006. We will then put the data into ArcMap, and hopefully find a conclusion.ArcMap, and hopefully find a conclusion.

Why we chose the problemWhy we chose the problem

Water shortage (drought) is common Water shortage (drought) is common in today’s news. This inspired us to in today’s news. This inspired us to see if there were any direct see if there were any direct correlations between socio-economic correlations between socio-economic status and water consumption. status and water consumption. Hopefully our results will aid in the Hopefully our results will aid in the conservation of water in these conservation of water in these troubling times.troubling times.

How the task was How the task was approachedapproached

We started by contacting the water corporation We started by contacting the water corporation to access their figures of water consumption. We to access their figures of water consumption. We then went to a class to learn how to use the then went to a class to learn how to use the mapping software ArcGIS. Tom Gardner came to mapping software ArcGIS. Tom Gardner came to our school, specially to help use to use GIS. We our school, specially to help use to use GIS. We then used data from the Perth Social Atlas, to then used data from the Perth Social Atlas, to determine socio-economic status of all suburbs.determine socio-economic status of all suburbs.

We then combined the data, and put them in We then combined the data, and put them in ArcMap. We used graduated colours to ArcMap. We used graduated colours to determine whether a correlation existed. determine whether a correlation existed.

Software usedSoftware used

We mainly used the software We mainly used the software called ArcGIS. We found that called ArcGIS. We found that ArcGIS was a very useful ArcGIS was a very useful software that fulfilled our software that fulfilled our needs. With the help of Tom needs. With the help of Tom Gardner, we were able to Gardner, we were able to colour code the various socio-colour code the various socio-economic statuses of different economic statuses of different suburbs. This made it clearer suburbs. This made it clearer to see whether a correlation to see whether a correlation existed between socio-existed between socio-economic status and water economic status and water consumption levels.consumption levels.

Data UsedData Used

The data we used consisted of a map The data we used consisted of a map which clearly showed the water which clearly showed the water consumption rates in each suburb, consumption rates in each suburb, thanks to the water corporation, thanks to the water corporation, unfortunately we ran into problems unfortunately we ran into problems loading each suburbs’ socio-economic loading each suburbs’ socio-economic status and as such we used Perth’s Social status and as such we used Perth’s Social Atlas instead to give us a rough idea of Atlas instead to give us a rough idea of each suburbs’ socio-economic status.each suburbs’ socio-economic status.

MethodMethod To get our results we contacted

the water corporation for statistics on the average water consumption of various suburbs. We then found the socio-economic status of each suburb, then we tried to combined the results in ArcGIS, which helped us to prove there was no correlation.

Data From Perth Social AtlasData From Perth Social Atlas

Low Income Areas High Income Areas

Water Consumption DataWater Consumption Data

Explanation of data

After inserting the data into ArcMap After inserting the data into ArcMap we used graduated colours to we used graduated colours to highlight the water consumption highlight the water consumption rates for each area. In our graduated rates for each area. In our graduated colours system the lighter green colours system the lighter green colours represent the lower average colours represent the lower average KL consumption, the dark reds KL consumption, the dark reds represent the higher end of the represent the higher end of the scale.scale.

Arcmap Data overlayed on WA Map

Problems FacedProblems Faced

It took a while to get the datasets that we It took a while to get the datasets that we needed and once we got the data we couldn’t needed and once we got the data we couldn’t open it as it was in pdf format. We solved this open it as it was in pdf format. We solved this problem by accessing computers with adobe, problem by accessing computers with adobe, then we were then able to complete our workthen we were then able to complete our work..Also when we originally looked for Data on the Also when we originally looked for Data on the ABS we found that their data wasn’t by suburb, ABS we found that their data wasn’t by suburb, so we had to use the perth Social Atlas instead.so we had to use the perth Social Atlas instead.

What we achieved What we achieved

After comparing the results we proved that there was no correlation between the socio-economic status of a suburb and the water consumption. We infer that water consumption may be linked to factors such as population size of the suburb and industrial areas.

Future Research Potential Future Research Potential

Although we are disappointed that our research proved no correlation between the two datasets, we still believe that more research could be done to discover what factors are resulting in higher water consumption, e.g. Population size.

We would like to give a special We would like to give a special thanks to:thanks to:

Mr LowryMr Lowry

Tom GardnerTom Gardner

Michael Canci from Michael Canci from the water the water corporation corporation

Daniel Veasey Daniel Veasey

ReferencesReferences

We got our water consumption data We got our water consumption data from Michael Canci at the Water from Michael Canci at the Water CorporationCorporation

We got our income statistics from the We got our income statistics from the Perth Social Atlas 2006Perth Social Atlas 2006