Abstract
Water withdrawals around the world have increased almost twice as fast as the population during the last century. Higher than expected water demand is leading to water scarcity and causing rapid depletion of water tables around the world. One reason behind the higher than expected demand is the inefficient use of water. Inefficient use of water affects the well-being of society, the economic stability of countries, and environmental health. Indeed, water use efficiency (WUE) is one of the pillars of sustainable development goals (SDG 6.4.1). However, progress toward achieving WUE is slow, especially for many developing countries where the degradation of natural resources is critical, economic growth is slow, and there are few strong institutions to coordinate actions. One reason behind inefficient water use is human behavior. A variety of contextual and psychological factors underlie the behavior. The contextual factors include socioeconomic, technical, institutional, and environmental factors and the behavioral factors include factors associated with the perception of risk, attitudes, norms, etc. Yet, few studies consider an integrated view of these factors in shaping water use behavior. This paper consolidates contextual and behavioral factors which influence water use, studies the gaps in our understanding of human water behavior underlying WUE and highlights the need to comprehensive assess and consistently measure such factors and their relationships. Based on the gaps identified, it proposes a conceptual model that connects contextual and behavioral factors and represents potential cause-effect relationships as supported by various environmental behavior approaches and psychological theories. Based on the literature review of water use, and conservation behavior, environmental psychology, and water use models, this model proposes an institutional factor to assess the relationship between institutions and stakeholders, and study contextual factors linked not only for individual water users but also studying these factors for individuals of water supply organizations.
Highlights
Every day large amounts of water are extracted from inland surface water bodies and aquifers for diverse uses such as for agriculture, domestic, electricity, and industrial purposes
Water Use Efficiency Behavior has led to water scarcity in countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, which are suffering from extremely high water stress conditions (Hofste et al, 2019)
Since individual behavior is essential to analyse the psychology of why people use water efficiently or not, behavioral studies have mainly focused on individual users, e.g., how consumers react to water use efficiency (WUE) measures and regulations (Graymore and Wallis, 2010; Lee et al, 2011; Scott et al, 2014; Jorge et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015; Vieira et al, 2017; Kneebone et al, 2018; Nazari et al, 2018; Benedict and Hussein, 2019; Kapetas et al, 2019; Koh, 2020)
Summary
Every day large amounts of water are extracted from inland surface water bodies (e.g., rivers, lakes, wetlands, and reservoirs) and aquifers for diverse uses such as for agriculture, domestic, electricity, and industrial purposes. Since individual behavior is essential to analyse the psychology of why people use water efficiently or not, behavioral studies have mainly focused on individual users, e.g., how consumers react to WUE measures and regulations (Graymore and Wallis, 2010; Lee et al, 2011; Scott et al, 2014; Jorge et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015; Vieira et al, 2017; Kneebone et al, 2018; Nazari et al, 2018; Benedict and Hussein, 2019; Kapetas et al, 2019; Koh, 2020). Beliefs consist of personal worldview of concerns or perceptions about the consequences of human actions that may harm the environment; norms relate to moral obligations to engage in an environmental behavior; values are central to any decision making process, and guide behavior and attitudes This model systematically identifies, measures, and integrates behavioral and contextual factors to assess behavior at an individual scale. The extension consists of including institutions (the organization responsible for water supply system) as an additional contextual factor, and trust as an additional behavioral factor
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