Which Calgary Community is the Best (At Saving Water)?

Written by Constantina Caldis Roberts, Rosabel Choi, Ashleigh Gibb, Jhermi Mehta

Identify the Problem

Every living thing on Earth depends on five essential elements for survival: Air, Fire, Water, Ether (or Space), and Earth. According to Ayurveda by Arjun, these elements are fundamental to our existence. In this blog, we will focus on water — “The Nurturing Element of Life,” a crucial element for all of us (Arjun, 2020). Molly Sargen highlights that water makes up 60–75% of the human body weight, emphasizing its importance in our daily lives (Sargen, 2019).

Recently, Calgarians have been asked to significantly reduce their water usage by 25% during June 2024 due to a critical water main break. This incident occurred on June 5th, 2024, and since then, city workers have been tirelessly repairing the damage. Given the critical nature of this situation, it is vital for everyone in Calgary to conserve water until the repairs are complete (City of Calgary, 2024).

There are multiple avenues of information from various sources that are not accessible to everyone from different demographics. Clear and accessible communication channels are essential during this crisis to ensure that all residents understand the severity of the situation and the importance of water conservation. Calgary residents, numbering 1.6 million (Canada Metro Area Population, 2024), are directly affected by the water restrictions imposed by city authorities. The Mayor and city administration, along with communication teams, are leading efforts to manage the crisis and inform the public. City workers are diligently repairing the water main, while emergency services and police ensure public safety amidst potential health and traffic disruptions. Every drop of water counts as Calgary faces stringent conservation measures. The ongoing repairs have impacted traffic and daily routines, highlighting the critical need for efficient infrastructure management and public cooperation during emergencies.

On June 6th, 2024, Calgarians were asked to adopt several water restrictions, including limiting shower times, avoiding the use of humidifiers, and refraining from using dishwashers. As the weeks went by, instead of seeing these restrictions lifted, residents faced even more limitations (City of Calgary, 2024). This led to widespread frustration, anxiety, and anger as many wondered how such a critical issue was not predicted in our technologically advanced era.

After several brainstorming sessions, our team, The Happy Techies, identified a problem statement:

How can we keep Calgarians updated about the water main break while also encouraging them to conserve water through incentives?

In response to our identified problem statement, we have strategically formulated several “How Might We” (HMW) questions as seen in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1

Several HMWs by The Happy Techies

Drawing on ideas of how we might communicate with other groups and share different ideas to save water, viewers of CTV News across North America share their thoughts. Martin Coghill, asset manager at San Diego County Water Authority, mentioned, “A former colleague now in Calgary reached out to see if we could help.” Fortunately, “We’re able to release two of these pipes to the City of Calgary, who need it more than we do,” Coghill added (CTV News, 2024).

After identifying the HMW questions, we decided to focus on creating incentives for people to participate. Clear communication and effective incentives in tackling this issue and are needed to find innovative solutions to keep our community well-informed and motivated to conserve water during this critical time of frustration. City officials in Calgary find themselves at the intersection of local discontent and global solidarity amidst the ongoing water crisis. While facing criticism from Calgarians grappling with water restrictions, they also receive support from global communities rallying behind their efforts. The Happy Techies empathize deeply with the challenges these citizens confront during this turbulent period.

Human Centered Design

Information updates from the city are delivered twice a day online, but not everyone has the ability to keep up-to-date with the latest information. There are varying levels of compliance with the recommended measures to save water. Non-compliant behaviour is impacting the water supply for everyone, and some are even ignoring the problem. Calgarians are piecing together information from various sources including online information that may not be accurate.

In considering the user perspective, we asked our friends and families to weigh in with their thoughts and feelings about the situation. We also reflected on our own perspectives and considered the issue from diverse backgrounds. Since the users consist of all Calgarians, we created several personas to help us conceptualize some of the user needs.

User Case Studies

Figure 2

Denise and family

Denise is a mother with two small children. She and her family live downtown and own a gardening store with a focus on houseplants. They are trying to keep updated on the water shortage crisis and are concerned about their declining sales at the store because people are not buying as many outdoor plants. In a busy household they are also adjusting to temporarily not being able to use community pools as their regular weekend activity. They are also struggling to conserve water in the home, with their small children leaving their water taps running. They are finding it a challenge to enforce these restrictions and recommendations at home with their children.

Figure 3

Gardener Burt

Burt is a retired engineer with accessibility issues, who enjoys growing fruit and vegetables in his small hobby farm in Okotoks. Okotoks now has restrictions in place which make it a challenge due to his physical limitations (Anderson, 2024). His online use is minimal but he has learnt how to use some Apps in order to call his daughter who lives in Toronto. He does not currently follow the water usage recommendations, partly because he sees his neighbour watering his yard as well. Not watering would also mean that he would not be able to bring his famous crop of vegetables to share with his son and grandchildren. He watches the local news but secretly waters his prized vegetable patch at night.

Figure 4

Fatima’s classroom

Fatima teaches social studies at an elementary school in Bowness, where she tries to raise awareness of social and environmental issues in the classroom. The school and many of her student’s families have been directly affected by the water main break. Fatima would like to engage the students in a project to raise awareness about water conservation in general, and the importance of conserving water for the city and their communities. She hopes that the children will share this knowledge with their families at home, and that they might benefit from a City of Calgary incentives program.

Empathy Mapping

To consider our users and understand their experience, we created empathy mapping responses for each persona.

Figure 5

Empathy map for three personas

Note. Chart of empathy map, with answers from the three persona’s point of view.

Despite all three individuals being directly affected by the water main break and subsequent conservation measures, the response to the problem has been quite varied. Some common threads are that users need to find a central source of information that is easy to access. Each persona shows a need to feel more connected to the collective needs of their community and the needs of the city. The emotional responses range from worry to apathy to a desire for empowerment through action. All are frustrated by the conflicting opinions and the perceived lack of coordinated community response. Each perspective reflects unique circumstances and priorities, but they all share the challenge of managing and responding to the water crisis in Calgary.

Another perspective to consider is how the human brain is wired. The psychologist Daniel Goleman explores neuroscience to illustrate how people develop outer awareness, which translates into understanding global systems. As we age, our sensitivity to systems diminishes because educational models typically present fragmented rather than systemic views. This leads to ‘systems blindness’ where we fail to understand how our daily activities affect global life-supporting systems (Oliver, 2020). This is one of the reasons why an increased effort is required to understand how our water use is impacting Calgary. We wanted to design a tool that would help the citizens of Calgary tap into their understanding of these systems and gain a better recognition of their influence on the broader community.

Understanding the resilience of Calgarians adjusting their daily routines to adhere to stringent water usage mandates imposed by authorities underscores the gravity of the situation. The dedication shown by residents in conserving water reflects a shared commitment to overcoming this crisis together.

Ideation

With that said, let’s ideate! How Might We Create incentives for Calgarians to save water as a collective? The Happy Techies participated in a collaborative brainstorming session via Google Jamboard. First, each team member brainstormed one idea on their own for 5 minutes. Next, each team member had the chance to comment and contribute to each idea generated for 5 minutes. After 4 rounds of adding to each idea, the group read through each one and discussed the thought behind the initial concept. We also discussed the potential and workability of each idea.

Figure 6

The Happy Techies Brainstorming Session

Note. Screenshot of brainstorming session via zoom using Google Jamboard.

The generated ideas from the brainstorming sessions were:

● Weekly water reports for Calgary communities, highlighting those with the greatest reduction in usage. The winning community gets a ‘Movie Under the Stars’.

● Design a competition/program tracking water between communities in Calgary. Whichever community uses the least amount of water gets a free BBQ.

● The public are given hints to a riddle everyday at the daily update. Guesses can be made online and the first person to get the riddle correct wins a prize.

● A cartoon image of the Glenmore Reservoir shows us the drop in water levels daily. In addition, a countdown timer calculating when our water will run out if we continue with the current usage.

Figure 7

Idea 1

Note. Weekly water usage reports (competition among communities).

Figure 8

Idea 2

Note. Water usage competition and/or program among communities.

Figure 9

Idea 3

Note. Tune into daily updates to stay informed (solve a riddle to win a prize).

Figure 10

Idea 4

Note. City-wide water level and future water projection tracker.

Common themes included tracking water usage among communities and fostering some healthy competition. After generating several different concepts, individual storyboards were sketched out on paper. We used storyboards to visualize and refine our ideas through depicting key stages of the user experience with the App. This allowed us to envision potential solutions in a structured and communicable format. We then used them as a collaborative tool to critique and refine our ideas moving into the prototyping stage. The storyboards below served not only as a blueprint for the final product but also as a narrative that aligns with a shared vision for Calgarians.

Storyboards incorporated the best pieces of each idea in the form of an emergency services smartphone App (coined at the time of storyboarding) for Calgarians to stay informed and motivated to continue curbing water usage throughout the course of the water main construction. Common storyboard themes included general information from the city, community trackers in the form of a graph, city-wide water levels/usage meters, live streams, water saving tips (community photos or discussion), and riddle clues (with an area to submit guesses and general information about prizes).

Figure 11

Sketches 1 & 2

Note. Storyboard sketches of key stages of the “emergency services” smartphone App.

Figure 12

Sketches 3 & 4

Note. Storyboard sketches of key stages of the “emergency services” smartphone App.

Building The Prototype

The Happy Techies have come up with a prototype to keep Calgarians updated about the water main break while also encouraging them to conserve water through incentives. The invention of the City of Calgary’s Incentives App has been designed as a way for Calgarians to connect directly to a current and accurate source of information regarding emergencies that are relevant to their communities. The app will offer fun, exciting and generous incentives for individuals and their larger communities while the current state of emergency is in effect.

For the purposes of this prototype, we will only discuss the SAVE WATER feature which is the current issue Calgarians are facing today. However, our hope would be to see this app used for any possible state of emergencies in which the local government needs to involve, incentivize, and engage the community. On opening the app you can navigate to four different sections; the Water Levels, the Community Scoreboard, the Prizes, and lastly the City of Calgary Information.

Figure 13

City of Calgary App: Full prototype

The Water Levels screen is depicted by the symbol of water droplets.

On this screen, you select a reservoir to view the current state of water levels which is indicated by a happy, sad or somewhere in between emoticon. The idea is to display an instant visual of an emoticon rather than showing an exact volume, which is already available elsewhere in the app. Below the water level indicator of the reservoir, there is an estimate of the number of days until it runs dry (Days till Dry). If Calgarians continue to use water at their current rate, this number will either decrease or increase, depending on the reservoir. Currently, the Glenmore Reservoir is not receiving any water due to ongoing pipe repairs, so we expect this number is going to drop. For this example, if we review the Bearspaw Reservoir we see a much more positive estimate of days until it runs dry.

The Community Scoreboard screen is accessed through the icon depicting two hands holding a group of people.

On this screen, we can choose your neighbourhood to see how it ranks in terms of water consumption per capita. At the top of the screen, we can view the overall water usage for Calgary’s quadrants: NE, NW, SW, SE. For example, the University District is selected in this example, indicated by a sad emoticon to indicate its current state. There will also be visualizations of raw data noting where this community is not conserving water. Selecting the neighbourhood Somerset reveals much better statistics, represented by a happy emoticon. The goal of viewing your community’s updates is to encourage individuals to become more incentivized to help their community win the grand prize. And it is GRAND! Let’s consider how individuals and communities can win a prize.

The Prizes screen is depicted by a gift symbol and offers three ways to win: two for individuals and community members, and one grand prize for an entire community.

Each day, during the mayor’s update, she will share the Riddle Radio. This riddle will be shared first by the mayor and then all the major radio channels will broadcast. Individuals can submit their answers for a chance to win a bottle of water and 10,000 points for their community. Two winners per week are drawn from those who entered and provided the correct answer. The Submit your Water Saver Pic will run similarly. The best two images chosen each week will also receive a bottle of water and 10,000 points towards their community. Finally, the grand prize will be awarded to the Community that saved the most water and earned the most points during the water pipe repair period. Once the Mayor announces the full completion of the water pipe repairs, the Community Winner will be announced and all households within this community will receive FREE Garbage Disposal for three months. Did we not say the prize was GRAND!!! Weekly winners are viewed on the Awards screen depicted by a trophy. The Grand prize for the community will also feature on this page once it is announced by the mayor.

The final screen for the City of Calgary Information is depicted by a skyline symbol.

Valuable information is already being shared by the City of Calgary, so this screen is a direct link to their website where Calgarians can view the details. The Open link button in our image prototype will take you there directly. Additionally, there will be a livestream showing the repair team’s efforts from an aerial view captured by a drone. This livestream is available during the working hours of the water pipe repair team, with live commentary from construction experts who explain the repair work currently underway.

Testing The Prototype

Now that you have seen the design of the prototype, it is time to share and test. The Happy Techies will test the prototype in two phases. In the first phase, we would demonstrate the prototype to community members like Denise, Burt and Fatima, both in-person and virtually, through a 10-minute presentation showcasing the prototype and its functionality via infographics. This presentation will also be digitized and shared with potential schools such as Fatima’s classroom. The prototype would be crafted out of paper for the presentation as well as various digital visual infographics.

After the presentation, we will ask community members to complete a survey with questions such as:

● Can you recognise the symbols in the app to understand where they lead?

● Do you find the app intuitive?

● Do you find the app playful and fun?

● Are you interested in the content provided by this app?

● Would you consider using this app based on the incentives offered?

● What other incentives would you find valuable as prizes?

● How do you feel about the decision not to include community discussions to avoid trolling?

● What other content would you like to see?

With the information gathered from Phase 1, we will make necessary adjustments. Moving to Phase 2, we want to build the prototype into a functional, user-friendly application suitable for smartphones. We will learn to build apps for iOS and Android devices with Alpha Software or BuildFire, consulting with software developers and engineers as required. Phase 2 also involves presenting the prototype to government officials to connect to the main data required for the app, specifically the usage of water per community area. We will ask similar questions to our government officials, as they are too part of a community. More importantly, we will need to research how to obtain the data required through special permissions. Perhaps they will buy this incredible app and keep us on board to continue app development for the government!

We will need to convince the government officials that by incentivizing individuals we are helping them encourage their community members to work together as a team. With current information at their fingertips, the City of Calgary Incentives App will be a positive and fun way to SAVE WATER for Calgary. Moreover, once established, the app could potentially be adapted for use in other emergency situations. The basic structure of the incentives feature will remain the same, but perhaps we have future ELECTRICITY shortages, we can start to see incentives like FREE Solar panels for community members saving the most!

Building on the experiences gleaned from managing the ongoing water main break crisis, we seek to leverage these lessons to initiate and sustain future projects effectively. Our strategy emphasizes transparency and accessibility, with a commitment to provide updates and accurate information about the water main break. By empowering Calgarians with a central source of information, we aim to keep them well-informed and actively engaged in meaningful water conservation efforts during this critical period. To achieve this, our goal is to develop compelling incentives designed to motivate and reward community participation.

Surprise! Since starting this project, the Calgary water main break has been repaired. Kudos to the city workers — but we still think Calgary needs our App for future crises. For more information, contact the Happy Techies design firm.

References

Agency, C. E. M. Critical water main break — June 2024. https://www.calgary.ca. https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/critical-water-main-break-june-2024.html

Arjun. (2020, December 14). The 5 elements of life according to Ayurveda. Sarveda. https://sarveda.com/the-five-elements-of-life-ayurveda/

Calgary, Canada Metro Area Population 1950–2024. www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved July 2, 2024, from https://www.macrotrends.net/global- metrics/cities/20370/calgary/population#google_vignette

Calgary’s water crisis should be a wake-up call for Canada, experts say. (2024, June 17). CTVNews. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/calgary-s-water-crisis-should-be-a-wake-up- call-for-canada-experts-say-1.6930637

City of Calgary. (2024, June 21). Critical water main break — June 2024. The City of Calgary. https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/critical-water-main-break-june- 2024.html?redirect=%2F16avewatermain

Development, P. Water main break — latest updates. https://www.calgary.ca. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/critical-water-main-break-june- 2024/water-main-break-updates.html

Oliver, J. D. (2020, November 20). Focus: The power of paying attention. Tricycle. https://tricycle.org/magazine/focus-daniel-goleman/

Sargen, M. (2019, September 26). Biological Roles of Water: Why is water necessary for life? Science in the News; Harvard University. https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/uncategorized/2019/biological-roles-of-water-why-is-water- necessary-for-life/

Scace, M. (2024, June 16). Calgary Gardeners, residents concerned about future water crises | calgary herald. Calgary Herald. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary- gardeners-residents-concerned-future-water-crises

Third-party agency to investigate Calgary Water Main Break, city says. Calgary. (2024, June 18). https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/third-party-agency-to-investigate-calgary-water-main- break-city-says-1.6931169

Water main repairs still on schedule as Calgary continues to conserve water: Gondek. (2024, June 22). Calgary. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/water-main-repairs-still-on-schedule-as- calgary-continues-to-conserve-water-gondek-1.6937214