How current lawn attributes affect choices concerning water conserving lawn options: An individualized choice experiment in Kelowna, British Columbia

Abstract

This paper contributes to the study of water use and policies governing land use in residential landscapes. We employed a discrete choice experiment to examine the effect existing lawn attributes have on stated preferences of residents of detached homes in the City of Kelowna, British Columbia, for four approaches to reducing the irrigation requirements for their residential lawns: restrictions on lawn sizes; the use of drought-tolerant turfgrass; restrictions on outdoor irrigation; and subsidies for removing or replacing lawns. Each respondent’s current lawn (i.e., the status quo) was included as a possible choice in the choice sets, and the attributes of the current lawn were used in constructing the alternatives. Part-worth utilities for a conditional logit and mixed logit model with these status quo predictors were used to analyze the choice data and provide estimates for lawn choices. Results show that status quo conditions contribute to the estimation of utility coefficients for lawn features and lawn choices. Irrigation watering costs and low levels of subsidies to encourage lawn replacement were found to only marginally influence residents’ landscaping decisions. Contrastingly, status quo factors representing the current fraction of turfgrass in the homeowner’s total landscape was the strongest motivating factor driving residents’ lawn choices. Residents with larger proportions of turfgrass were more likely to choose landscaping changes that featured smaller percentages of lawns. Another significant status quo factor in residents’ lawn choices was turfgrass variety, where residents with traditional varieties of turfgrass were more likely to choose landscaping options with water conserving lawns.