The Water footprint plugin helps you understand how the total volume of water consumed in your network evolves over time. By comparing current consumption with a baseline period, you can measure the impact of operational changes, monitor seasonal variations, and see whether your water-saving initiatives are truly making a difference.

This plugin is informative and metric-oriented. It doesn’t change how your network operates, but it provides valuable insights to support decision-making.

Data requirements

To use the Water footprint plugin, your network must include:

• Defined zones
• A flow sensor installed in all inlets and outlets of each zone
• Flow readings available for those sensors covering the baseline and analysis periods

The more complete your data, the more accurate and insightful your results will be.

How to analyze water footprint with Qatium

Follow these steps to compare your network’s consumption against a baseline:

1. Access your network in Qatium and activate the plugin.
   If the Water Footprint plugin is not available in your subscription, you can buy it from the Marketplace.

2. Select a baseline period
   By default, the plugin sets the initial baseline period to start 9 weeks before the current date with a duration of 1 week. You can adjust this as needed:

• Choose a start date.
• Choose a duration: 1 day, 1 week, or 2 weeks.
  Example: baseline from July 27th, with a duration of 1 week (until August 3rd).

3. The plugin automatically sets the analysis period.
   It starts the day after your baseline ends and continues until the current timeline date.
   Example: if your baseline is July 27–August 3, the analysis period runs from August 4th to today, or the date you’ve selected on the timeline.
    
4. Filter by DMA using the dropdown to see results for a specific area or for the whole network.

Insights & results

The plugin compares your baseline and analysis periods and provides:

1. Total volume consumed (in m³, ML, or ft³ depending on your network units)
2. Percentage increase or reduction compared to the baseline
3. A graph showing the evolution of your network’s consumption, with daily or weekly views to focus on short-term variations or longer-term trends

The plugin makes the comparison day by day, and you can choose to also see weekly aggregates in the graph. Daily comparison keeps things consistent, since your baseline is always 1 day, 1 week, or 2 weeks long. This way, you’re always comparing the same weekdays (for example, Monday with Monday).

On the map, zones are visually highlighted so you can quickly see where changes are happening:

• Zone inlets in green if there are savings in the analysis period compared to the baseline
• Zone inlets in red if consumption has increased

You can also download a .csv report with your water footprint data, making it easy to share results or analyze them further outside Qatium.