Public preferences toward water-wise landscape design in a summer season

Abstract

Water-wise landscaping is considered as an important landscaping method to save water in water-restricted countries. However, there are still concerns and a shortage of knowledge on people’s preferences and the factors shaping them. This study examined the effect of landscape factors of plant combinations (6 levels) and mulch types (3 levels) about 16 different landscape (planting) designs (varied from water-wise to water-demanding) on preferences of 207 respondents. After obtaining the preferences assigned to each plot by the participants, the effect of the landscape attributes on overall preference was determined using regression analysis. The results suggested that water-wise landscapes containing solely herbaceous flowering plants were significantly more preferred (p ≤ 0.01) and less costly (p ≤ 0.01) compared to the other designed landscapes. Except for the mixture of deciduous and evergreen shrubs, all the water-wise design types were more preferred than the water-demanding landscapes. Wood chips had better aesthetic performance than red pumice. Therefore, it could be used in water-wise landscaping without reducing aesthetic performance. Also, the percentage of canopy cover had a predicting and key role in improving landscape preference.