The objective of this study is to describe and assess a methodology based on a time geographical approach for studying energy and water use in households. Energy and water resources are often used in routinized activities, and in activities considered as private, normal and ordinary, which makes them difficult to explore in research. In this article, we give an account of a mixed-methods approach using time diaries, metering data, interviews and simple observations, and analyse and discuss its methodological and empirical implications from two Swedish case studies. We conclude that the suggested combination of methods, despite some complications, provides a comprehensive account of household energy and water use to which various theoretical perspectives could apply. Energy and water using activities are defined in terms of time, place, quantity, material and social context, and are related to user perspectives on resource use and usage data. Such knowledge provides important input for information campaigns, technological retrofitting and other systemic changes in striving towards sustainability.

The integration of infrastructure domains and resource flows such as electricity, heat, water and waste increasingly gains currency in strategies to achieve more resource-efficient, smart and resilient cities. While widely discussed concepts of a nexus of resource systems, such as energy-water-food, aim at a more optimised and integrative management of resource flows, this article investigates how infrastructure integration is accomplished through the establishment of new interfaces and junctions between formerly separated systems. In particular, it focuses on households as an arena where different urban infrastructures intersect and different kinds of sometimes contradicting demands are imposed to co-manage these infrastructures, such as in the case of own electricity generation from photovoltaics along with the charging of electric cars and the management of household energy consumption. The installation of meters and the constant monitoring of resource use and consumption feedback to household members is regarded as a crucial element in such a transition towards more sustainable urban infrastructures. Empirically, the article studies the introduction of hot tap water meters in urban households in Sweden and the resistance and reactions of these households to such a metering regime. Our study shows how meters as new junctions between energy suppliers and users but also between separate infrastructures of electricity, hot tap water and room heating become contested political terrains which are linked to broader socio-political questions of urban change. In contrast to system management perspectives, such an inside-out approach rather lends itself to context-sensitive and navigational governance approaches of infrastructure integration.

Sustainable development goals are defined at various institutional and organisational levels, and generate numerous ‘green’ technology projects. Most research concerns successful projects, and good examples are put forward for others to learn from. However, to pave the way for sustainability in practice, more knowledge is needed about the failed projects – what, or who, obstructs the realisation of ecologically motivated projects? This study explores, from a time-geographical perspective, a failed project concerning the introduction of individual metering and debiting of hot tap water in rented flats in Sweden. The study is based on interviews with key persons, observations and documents. The results underline the importance of acknowledging all project constraints and their interrelationship in an implementation process to explain project failure, being of an economic, political, social, cultural, technical, physical or legislative nature. Put into local contexts, similar ‘green technology’ will have different connotations and will have to deal with place-specific constraints. The project owner’s possibility to control and overcome local constraints will determine if the project will succeed or fail.

The EU Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) emphasises individual metering and debiting (IMD) of energy and hot water to reduce households usage. Householders respond in different ways to IMD. Studies on aggregated water demand before and after IMD show a range of results from about 15% increased usage to 50% less. Little is known of the long-term durability of routine change. This article describes and qualitatively analyses the short- and long-term impacts of IMD on householders water-use routines. A combination of time diaries, interviews, metering data and simple observations was used for the study of seven households. The households were studied at the introduction of IMD and after 5-17 months of experience; five of these households also participated in a follow-up study a decade later. The study shows that routines changed early, when households were informed about the new option that IMD provided and when getting billed. The routines were kept over time. Later changes in water usage related to changes in household composition and everyday activities and were not attributable to IMD. Implementers of IMD are advised to be careful in the introduction phase, e.g. when constructing debiting norms, performing information activities, and giving other feedback to the households.

Exkursionen som undervisningsform värnas ofta av lärare och forskare i geografi. Exkursionen är ett centralt inslag för geografistudenternas lärande. Detta för utbildning med inriktning mot lärare i grundskolan och gymnasiet och för utbildning med inriktning mot forskning inom geografi. Exkursionsinslag är ofta inskrivet i kursplaner för geografi. På en exkursion har läraren möjligheten att kontextualisera och ge en djupare förståelse för innebörden av geografiska begrepp.

The urban water and sanitation system has been questioned from various sustainability perspectives but, like other large technical systems, it is highly path dependent and resistant to change. The response to environmental demands is typically to optimize existing technology and procedures, adding new system-compatible technology, and to introduce policy instruments to improve water use by households. However, these policy instruments are general measures that touch on everyday life in various household contexts. Despite the geographical extension of water and sanitation networks, any policy instrument or systemic change will be interpreted and understood in local contexts, and users in households act locally. Nevertheless, conceptual discussion of the interconnectedness of system design, household context, and user routines is lacking. This article aims to provide a conceptual model combining systems and everyday-life views in the same framework. The model is applied to the concrete Swedish example of phosphorous recycling from wastewater.

 This paper addresses the problem of energy saving in the residential sector and its relation to behavior. However, we know little about the mechanisms explaining consumption and use. The aim is to explore the behavioral elements behind patterns of use, so that consumption can be explained and saving possibilities identified. The study is based on detailed, metered data from an ongoing monitoring study. A larger sample from that study made testing of two hypotheses possible. Yet, many factors remain hidden and must be traced among the habits of households. The major part of the article is devoted to an exploration into what other variables are at work. This was done by studying the electricity consumption of seven households closely. Here, different sources of information from each household were combined: detailed, metered data for each lamp or fixture; data from interviews regarding habits; and observations of natural light and lighting equipment at visits. This information from combined sources was used to detect meanings of use and relationships with consumption. What has been found here must be translated to measurable variables and tested on representative samples of populations. This study offers information on these variables identified and how to interpret them.

The strategic planning of urban water systems is a complex task. The Urban Water programme covered projects from various disciplines at 9 Swedish Universities, from 1999 to 2006. The projects developed a "toolbox" for strategic planning of drinking-, waste- and stormwater management, covering aspects such as the environment, health and hygiene, financing, organisation, households, and technical function. Strategic Planning of Sustainable Urban Water Management synthesises the results and presents a comprehensive approach, which includes not only the technical, economic and environmental aspects, but also the challenges of institutional capacity and public participation in the planning process. Furthermore, the experience from a number of case studies are summarised and can offer readers inspiration for their own planning situations.

The emerging chemical society and new political demands on improved ecological sustainability have put the urban water and sanitation system under pressure. It is recognised that the users need to partake in the problem solving, but to influence human practice we must understand it. A theoretical framework, founded on time-geography and cultural analysis, was developed and applied in a study on the interrelationship between changes in water and sanitation arrangements at the household level and residents' routines. This article describes the theory cross-fertilisation and its prospect of application in studies of human environmental action. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Vi analyserade vattenförbrukning och utgifter för vatten i hushåll boende i ett flerbostadsområde med och utan individuell mätning och debitering efter förbrukning med såväl statistiska som kvalitativa metoder. Våra resultat visar att individuell mätning och debitering efter förbrukning ledde till minskad förbrukning av varm- och kallvatten,fastän rutinförändringarna generellt var förhållandevis små. Hushåll med relativt hög förbrukning sparade på vattnet medan de med relativt låg förbrukning, i genomsnitt, inte förändrade förbrukningen. I de flesta hushåll minskade utgifterna för vatten med mätning och debitering. Den fjärdedel av hushållen med högst förbrukning betalade omkring 500 kr per månad för varm- och kallvatten, vilket motsvarade nästan 5% av hushållets totala inkomst. För bostadsbolagets del var värdet av den minskade vattenförbrukningen och eventuellt ökade intäkter från hushållen samt bättre förmåga att upptäcka läckor de viktigaste nyttorna. Individuell mätning kräver, förutom tekniska komponenter, relativt mycket personal och tilltro till den som inför mätningen. Vi menar att det går att förutsäga effekten av individuell mätning utifrån demografiska och inkomststatistiska data, uppgifter om vattenförbrukning utan individuell mätning och genom val av en andel fast avgift. 

Our society changed, but the urban water and sanitation system of today is roughly the same as it was 100 years ago. The system is designed for, developed from and sustained by human activities, and has since its introduction affected household patterns of routine activities. The urban water and sanitation system is now being criticised for not being sustainable due to excessive material, energy and chemical use, and failure to recycle and reuse resources. Altering household practices is perceived as one important step towards improved sustainability.

In this study, two changes in water and sanitation arrangements at the household level are analysed: individual meters for volumetric billing of hot and cold water, and dry toilets with separate collection of urine and faeces. These arrangements increase system transparency, and their proponents believe that the arrangements enhance resource recycling and/or rsource savings. However, success in this regard can only be achieved if accompanied by appropriate household routines. The extent to which such appropriate routines come about and why (not) is the focus of attention in this study; the aim is to describe and analyse the interaction between householder routines and changes in water and sanitation arrangements.

This study takes as its starting point household everyday life. A methodological combination of time-diaries, interviews, physical measurements and simple observations is developed and implemented in two cases; the housing area Ringdansen with flats (volumetric billing) and the collective Gebers based on an ecological way of life (dry toilets). The theoretical approach is developed from time-geography and culture analysis. The methodological and theoretical approaches have proven useful and can be developed further.

Household responded differently to the volumetric billing in Ringdansen, but in general, no sweeping routine changes took place in the households. A comparison of average total water usage per household (at an aggregated level) between the two cases, showed no significant difference. Water-use routines are also similar in the two areas, even though variations appear between households. There seems to be a socio-culturally defined lower limit for water use, regarded as necessary for maintaining sufficient standards of cleanliness and comfort, irrespective of the influence of ecological or economic incentives. Differences in household composition, built-in technical arrangements and existence of a garden (Gebers) explain the differences in hot and cold water usage between the two areas. The dry toilet was shown to have a decisive impact on toilet disposal routines; only biodegradable waste products are thrown into it and the cleaning agents are environmentally friendly toilet disposal routines that reach beyond the 'good' routines evolving from environmental concern. The relationship between changes in water and sanitation arrangements and householder routines may be expressed as follows: an extensive change in arrangements, either technical/physical, organisational and/or economical, results in more radical routine changes, and more so if combined. However, the improvement as regard ecological sustainability is conditional on what is socio-culturally accepted - social sustainability.