Analysis of water consumption characteristics and quota of the university in Beijing

Water scarcity significantly threatens global water security, so a water quota must be established based on scientific evidence to improve water utilization. Colleges and universities have a large student population and consume large quantities of water. This study was conducted at a university in Beijing as the research object. The water consumption of public washrooms, student canteens, and libraries was calculated using quadratic averaging and subjective probability methods. During a one-week monitoring period, the public washrooms consumed 95.61 L of water per capita on the highest day, while the two canteens consumed 23.06 L and 22.55 L, respectively. These data show that water consumption is in line with the standard range. But on the maximum day of the library, the hourly variation factor was more than 1.5 ∼ 1.2, which is 206.67% of the upper limit of the standard value. Based on this analysis, the study recommended a water use quota value, which supported the revision of the water use quota and the effective implementation of the water-saving policy.