Understanding the public's behavior in adopting green stormwater infrastructure

Abstract

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is promoted to sustainably manage stormwater in the United States. Aside from mitigating floods, it provides other ecosystem services such as improved water quality, scenic beauty, and an increase in property values of surrounding houses, among others. Because of the importance of community participation in the success of GSI, we investigated the factors affecting the household's intention to adopt GSI practices on their properties. We sent out an online survey to the coastal residents from eight coastal counties of South Carolina. The final samples included 1,031 residents. Using generalized ordered logit models (GOLM), we assessed the factors affecting their level of intention to adopt three common GSI practices— rain gardens, rooftop disconnection, and rain barrels. We also applied logit regression to identify the determinants of their intention to adopt one or more GSI practices. Household characteristics such as age, house ownership, property flooding history, and perception of flooding impacts and stormwater management were found to be significant in most of the models. On the other hand, only a few adoption barriers and ES became significant across the models. The findings of this study could help stormwater professionals in encouraging residents to participate in onsite stormwater management.