Identification of correlation between residential demand and average income using pool regression model

In the face of increasingly frequent water crises, human supply becomes an even more complex challenge. In large urban centers, due to changes in consumption patterns, the values of residential water demand are high. The need for an offer that meets this growing demand pushes decision makers to an analysis of increasingly critical scenarios in order to achieve a balance in supply and demand (Fielding et al. 2013). The decision-making process, when done from a robust, technical and scientific base, promotes benefits and efficiencies that result in positive impacts at all levels: social, economic and environmental. In order to provide subsidies for the decision-making process, this paper proposes to analyze the variation of demand in urban centers through the application of a pool regression model, seeking to identify the existence of some statistical correlation between the water consumption variation pattern and mean income. The area of application is the city of Fortaleza, in the northeast of Brazil..