title: Sociodemographic patterns of household water-use costs in Puerto Rico.
abstract: Variability of household water-use costs across different sociodemographic groups in Puerto Rico is evaluated using census microdata from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS). Multivariate analyses such as multiple linear regression (MLR) and factor analysis (FA) are used to classify, extract and interpret the household water-use costs. The FA results suggest two principal varifactors in explaining the variability of household water-use costs (64% in 2000 and 50% in 2010), which are grouped into a soft coefficient (social, economic and demographic characteristics of household residents, i.e., age, size, income, education) and a hard coefficient (dwelling conditions, i.e., number of rooms, units in the building, building age). The demographic profile of a high water-use household in Puerto Rico tends to be that of renters, people who live in larger or older buildings, people living in metro areas, or those with higher education level and higher income. The findings and discussions from this study will help decision makers to plan holistic and integrated water management to achieve water sustainability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghasemizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez 00682, Puerto Rico.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Padilla
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Meeker
authors.affiliation: University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan 00936, Puerto Rico.
authors.forename: Jose F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cordero
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: aalsha@coe.neu.edu.
authors.forename: Akram
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alshawabkeh
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D058735:Environmental Policy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D062066:Water Resources / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D014881:Water Supply / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Factor analysis; Household water-use costs; IPUMS; Puerto Rico (USA); Sociodemographic