Defining aquatic centres for energy and water benchmarking purposes

Aquatic centres are major community facilities that require a large amount of water and energy to operate. Aquatic centres are very complex buildings which have made it difficult to obtain clear and verifiable indicators to measure and compare their energy and water consumptions. This paper clarifies and defines what constitutes an aquatic centre by investigating those operating within Victoria, Australia using the Internet. Information from 110 aquatic centres was collected and used to establish various categories of aquatic centre based on the types and number of amenities that they provide. This study defined an aquatic centre as a community or public venue that provides at least an indoor swimming pool and three different types of amenities (e.g. gymnasium, sauna/spa, café and crèche). This paper also discusses how the lack of clear definition of aquatic centres can create confusion when researching and comparing their energy and water usages. This is achieved by reviewing academic and industry literature and also comparing existing energy and water benchmarks of aquatic centres. This investigation also confirmed that there are no universal guidelines for benchmarking aquatic centres. Therefore, guidelines for defining aquatic centres and also for benchmarking energy and water use of aquatic centres are proposed.