Athanasiadis and Mitkas argue that informal, word-of-mouth networks are more effective than large-scale water conservation campaigns. They develop an influence-diffusion mechanism that follows agent-based social simulation to represent informal networks in a more realistic way than usual macrolevel simulations.

The distributed agents for water simulation (Dawn) framework consists of a community of interacting, autonomous, consumer agents. These agents simulate social interactions, and through the influence-diffusion mechanism, they persuade each other and ultimately make decisions. The paper suggests that with Dawn, water decision makers can better understand the quantitative implications of hybrid approaches that combine public awareness campaigns and price adjustments for controlling water demand.

The topic is timely. Consumer patterns and how they are affected by awareness campaigns are increasingly significant, particularly to privatized water networks, and they are difficult to study. The authors professionally build in elusive variables, such as housing conditions, weather, and social influence.

One sentence in particular is insightful: “The simulator’s overall goal is not to forecast the modeled system’s exact state but rather to explore how the system will evolve due to specific policies.” In other words, these simulations are not purely for predicting or forecasting, but for understanding changing patterns. Regarding methods, the authors’ point that conventional econometric models reflect macrolevel opinion, but not the microlevels (individuals), is a gap their Dawn model fills.

Techniques such as Dawn and agent-based modeling take a more sensitive approach to understanding water consumption patterns. The authors are forward-looking to note that water price alone is not effective in controlling water demand. They understand the importance of individual-to-group flows (bottom-up) and mutual interactions. Their proposed scenarios and Dawn framework will immediately aid in decision making processes. Gathering quantitative measures of data and assigning them to social interactions is a common methodological problem, but not an impossible one, as they have demonstrated.

The paper is enjoyable to read, confidently employing mathematical equations to convey their argument, yet accessible to and persuasive for a multidisciplinary audience. Their study contributes to refining public awareness campaigns to be smaller, informal, and more personal. Water management professionals from the social and natural sciences will benefit from reading this article.