Abstract
Using data from the 2015 Residential Water Consumption Survey, this study examines residential water-use behavior and attitudes after the recent drought in Fresno, California. Spatial autoregressive models of residential water consumption were estimated, accounting for the effects of social interactions in communities (i.e., neighborhood effects), while controlling for indoor and outdoor house attributes, economic conditions, and attitudes toward water uses. The findings show that the spatial autocorrelations do exist. This suggests that the neighborhood effects can be a useful lever to facilitate initiatives aiming at promoting community engagement on water-saving practices. The results also indicate that a larger house tends to incur more water use, so does the presence of pools. Using a drip irrigation system for watering the backyard can help reduce water consumption. Medium income families turn out to use the least amount of water among different income groups, suggesting that water-saving policies may yield different results among residents of various income levels. Interestingly, respondents who considered themselves heavy water users actually used less water. This implies that the awareness of water importance can significantly influence residents’ water-use behavior and therefore the promotion of a water-saving culture can help reduce residential water consumption.
Highlights
IntroductionDroughts have replaced floods as the natural disaster that affected the most people in the world [1,2]
A residential water consumption survey was conducted for the City of Fresno in 2015
Survey data showed that most respondents did reduce water uses, indicating that the drought experience in the past five years has effects on water-use behavior
Summary
Droughts have replaced floods as the natural disaster that affected the most people in the world [1,2]. In 2015, 32 major droughts caused losses more than double the average for the last decade, affecting about 50.5 million people across the world [2]. In California, the recent drought resulted in water shortage of 1.5 million acre-feet in 2014, causing direct losses of $1.5 billion to agriculture and indirect losses of $0.7 billion to the statewide economy [3]. Coping with water scarcity has become a new research focus in urban and regional development in the United States and throughout the world [6,7,8,9,10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
