Maintaining the Common Pool: Voluntary Water Conservation in Response to Varying Scarcity

Aisbett, Emma; Steinhauser, Ralf

doi:10.1007/s10640-013-9722-3

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…This measure of drought saliency is an objective function of hydrologic conditions, and thus may not directly translate into a societal sense of urgency. The index in equation ( 1) is consistent with the observation that generally, more severe hydrologic conditions have been associated with increasingly urgent drought response, as shown with the progression of water policy in California and in other case studies (Aisbett & Steinhauser, 2014;Hester & Larson, 2016;Quesnel & Ajami, 2017). Nevertheless, local conditions have been shown to have an important impact on societal response to hydrologic drought.…”

Section: Long-term Water Use and Rebound Modelsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…One of the most important determinants of conservation responsiveness and behavioral change during drought is the severity of drought conditions, and how this may relate to public awareness (Aisbett & Steinhauser, 2014;Lindsay et al, 2017;Palazzo et al, 2017). The saliency of a drought event is difficult to measure, and there are no standard metrics currently being used.…”

Section: Long-term Water Use and Rebound Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social and Structural Patterns of Drought‐Related Water Conservation and Rebound

Gonzales

Ajami

2017

Water Resources Research

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Water use practices and conservation are the result of complex sociotechnical interactions of political, economic, hydroclimatic, and social factors. While the drivers of water demand have been extensively studied, they have traditionally been applied to models that assume stationary relationships between these various factors, and usually do not account for potential societal changes in response to increased scarcity awareness. For example, following a period of sustained low demand such as during a drought, communities often increase water use during a hydrologically wet period, a phenomenon known as “rebounding” water use. Previous experiences show the extent of this rebound is not a straightforward function of policy and efficiency improvements, but may also reflect short‐term or long‐lasting change in community behavior, which are not easily captured by models that assume stationarity. In this work, we develop a system dynamics model to represent water demand as a function of both structural and social factors. We apply this model to the analysis of three diverse water utilities in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1980 and 2017, identifying drought response trends and drivers over time. Our model is consistent with empirical patterns and historical context of water use in California, and provides important insights on the rebound phenomenon that can be extended to other locations. This comparative assessment indicates that policies, public outreach, and better data availability have played a key role in raising public awareness of water scarcity, especially with the raise of the internet era in recent years.

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Section: Long-term Water Use and Rebound Modelsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Long-term Water Use and Rebound Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and Structural Patterns of Drought‐Related Water Conservation and Rebound

Gonzales

Ajami

2017

Water Resources Research

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“…Our experiment was undertaken during a time of drought in a water scarce country. Other studies have found that conservation increases when water is scarce and the public value of the savings is greatest [38]. It may be the case, for example, that in areas of water abundance we will not find difference between assertive and suggestive phrasing of water conservation campaigns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Still Waters Run Deep: Comparing Assertive and Suggestive Language in Water Conservation Campaigns

Katz

Kronrod

Grinstein

et al. 2018

Water

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Abstract:The current work focuses on non-price policies to achieve residential water conservation, specifically on water conservation campaigns. The authors report the results of a large-scale longitudinal field experiment encouraging residential water conservation among 1500 households. The effectiveness of two commonly-used message phrasings is compared: an assertive and a suggestive message. Assertive messages employ a commanding tone, such as "You must conserve water", whereas suggestive messages employ a more gentle approach, as in "Please consider conserving water". Despite the ubiquitous use of assertive phrasing in pro-social messages, and previous research that suggests that, in some cases, assertive language can increase message compliance, the authors show here that the suggestive, gentler, message language can make a more accentuated change in residential water conservation behavior. This may stem from the status of water as a basic needs resource, which may reduce the appropriateness of freedom restricting language, such as an assertive tone.

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“…Yet, this was influenced by strong advertising and conservation pressures during the drought, which, however, were weakened during the wet weather period (Berk et al, 1993;Maggioni, 2015). In South-Eastern Australia, Aisbett & Steinhauser (2014) studied the effect of shifting water stock availability for urban use in situations of persistent drought. The results revealed that a 10% reduction in dam availability activated a deliberate saving of approximately 5.5% throughout the water scarcity period.…”

Section: Weakening Of Water Reductionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-country evidence for social dimensions of urban water consumption during droughts

Echeverría

2020

Journal of Cleaner Production

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A systematic literature review is carried out to understand the social dimensions driving the adoption of water saving behaviors in urban households. Salient aspects of the problem correspond to price elasticity of water demand, citizens' awareness of water value and water conservation intentions, the management of which is generally tackled through water price and non-price approaches. However, the evidence falls short to explain the social drivers and inhibitors of stable water consumption reductions. After reviewing 65 papers documenting research conducted in North America, Australia, United Kingdom, Middle East, Mexico, China and Japan, a series of categories of analysis drawn from the literature are introduced as the social factors that influence water conservation reduction. Although the brink of the state of the art mentions the existence of an intention e behavior gap, sustainability requires further aspirations than short-term water consumption reduction by households. The long-term challenges of sustainability require the understanding of intention e behavior e stable reduction gaps. Further research is needed to fill this double gap. Understanding the determinants and insights behind the dissipation (or stabilization) of water consumption reductions through time are certainly rich areas of analysis for the social sciences.

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Maintaining the Common Pool: Voluntary Water Conservation in Response to Varying Scarcity

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Social and Structural Patterns of Drought‐Related Water Conservation and Rebound

Social and Structural Patterns of Drought‐Related Water Conservation and Rebound

Still Waters Run Deep: Comparing Assertive and Suggestive Language in Water Conservation Campaigns

Cross-country evidence for social dimensions of urban water consumption during droughts

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