ISSN: 2449 – 0539 BAYERO JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (BJET) VOL.15 NO.2, May, 2020 pp 105-116 Also available online at https://www.bayerojet.com 105 APPLYING THE CONCEPT OF SOCIO-HYDROLOGY TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR ON WATER MANAGEMENT SECTORS: A REVIEW N.J. Shanono * * Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria E-mail: njshanono.age@buk.edu.ng; Phone: +2348038443863 ABSTRACT Water is known to sustain life and nothing on this earth can viably serve as a substitute for water which necessitated the need to manage it with the utmost care by considering all sources of problems. Until now, human behav- iour-induced problems are rarely put into consideration in water management strategies. For example, most of the previous water management policies lack explicit ethical basis and neglected the effect of the underlying human norms and values. Moreover, the majority of the water stakeholders are either ethically unaware or have no will to efficiently and sustainability use and manage water. Some of the reported behaviour-related problems affecting water sectors include unauthorised releases, unlawful water abstractions, tampering with water meters, water wastage behaviour and discharge of untreated or poorly treated wastewater into rivers and other fraudulent incidences. On the other hand, ethics-based approaches such as water conservation sensitization and awareness campaigns and reporting unlawful activities to the relevant authority have been reportedly linked to a significant improvement in the water sectors. Despite these negative and positive effects of societal norms and values, behaviour-induced problems have not attracted much interest in the current water researches. Although, some pioneering studies in the field of so- cio-hydrology have recently attempted to dynamically couple human characteristics (the social aspect) with various water systems (the hydrological aspect). Herein, we offer a socio-hydrological review, focusing on human behaviour and its implications on water management sectors. The aim was to gain insights into how human behaviour impacts on those water systems, and how water systems could, in turn, shapes human in terms of their well-being and subse- quent decisions. This study identified the impact of human behaviour as the missing link that if not realistically quan- tified and incorporated could render water management sectors unsuccessful. Therefore, a model that simulates the water management operations whilst coupling those human impacts quantitatively would be a valuable tool for iden- tifying the extent to which humans affected water sectors, thereby informing relevant decision-makers. Keywords: Human behaviour; societal responses; socio-hydrology; water management sectors 1. INTRODUCTION Previously, water planners and managers paid more at- tention to catchment yield assessment, proposing sites for construction of dams and developing rules for the opti- mum operation of these dams. Such a method of water resource development is termed as structural risk reduc- tion measures which have been adopted for supplement- ing the limited water resources (Loucks et al., 2005). This led water-related studies to be mainly directed towards harnessing and utilizing water resource with less consid- eration to non-structural measures (water saving methods). Later, non-structural risk reduction measures such as water conservation and water demand management (WC-WDM) were introduced as an alternative when the available resources are limited (Kuria & Vogel, 2014). Although there are lots of non-structural risk reduction measures now in use, one of the problems which attracted little attention and remains elusive globally is the impact of changing human behaviour (Groenfeldt, 2013; Muller, 2017). In South Africa, for example, huge capital in- vestments have been made to construct new water infra- structures to meet water demands rather than stopping the leaks such as wastage behaviour and water theft (Chikwanda, 2011). Although some non-structural risk reduction measures such as efficient water usage aware- ness campaign and water leakage reduction are in place, there is a need to dynamically consider the impacts of changing human behaviour on water resources. In 2011, WC-WDM measures were implemented and a consider- able reduction in water consumption has been noticed in the city of Cape Town from 2011 to 2014. This led the