Abstract
Abstract. The design of water awareness campaigns could benefit from knowledge of the specific characteristics of domestic water use and the factors that may influence certain water consumption habits. This paper investigates water use in 450 households in 10 municipalities of drought-prone Alicante (Spain). We aim to increase knowledge about existing domestic water behaviors and therefore help to improve the design and implementation of future water awareness campaigns and even to consolidate reductions in water use after drought periods. The survey suggests that awareness campaigns should revise their scope and their channels of diffusion on a regular basis. In a more specific way, for the Alicante case we propose policy-oriented recommendations on the scope of action for further reductions.
Highlights
Water awareness campaigns constitute one of the pillars of water conservation policies in urban environments, especially during drought periods (Baumann et al, 1998; Woltemade and Fuellhart, 2013)
Information about household water uses and behaviors may improve the efficacy of messages aimed at consolidating conservation beyond the duration of droughts, which is one of the major challenges faced by policy makers regarding this topic (Wang et al, 1999)
This paper investigates water use in drought-prone Alicante, one of the fastest growing areas of Spain, combining one of the more important tourist centers in the western Mediterranean with a very productive agricultural sector based on irrigation (Gil and Rico, 2008; Juárez, 2008)
Summary
Water awareness campaigns constitute one of the pillars of water conservation policies in urban environments, especially during drought periods (Baumann et al, 1998; Woltemade and Fuellhart, 2013). This paper investigates water use in drought-prone Alicante, one of the fastest growing areas of Spain, combining one of the more important tourist centers in the western Mediterranean with a very productive agricultural sector based on irrigation (Gil and Rico, 2008; Juárez, 2008). Against this backdrop, relatively frequent periods of little precipitation (Juárez et al, 2010) have made drought a key issue for Alicante (Gil, 2010; Hernández et al, 2010). Drought management will become a critical issue in the future given the discouraging prospects of climate change and their impact on water availability in the area (Saurí et al, 2013)
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