Methodologies for Successful Implementation of Smart Irrigation Controllers

Informing Extension Program Development Through Audience Segmentation: Targeting High Water Users

“…As for the survey of the high water users, a participation rate of 25% was obtained with 2,028 being invited to take the survey, resulting in 512 useable responses that met the criteria, including living in specific counties and identified as having the excessive irrigation practices (Davis & Dukes, 2014) needed to classify the respondents as high water users and considered a large enough sample size to be representative of the population of interest (Baker et al, 2013). Since quotas were used a priori to identify targeted respondents, data were not weighted.…”

Evolving response to smart irrigation controllers in high water‐use central Florida homes

“…A small number of survey participants in the MO group eventually purchased a smart controller on their own, but survey questions regarding controllers were only distributed to the participants in the controller treatment groups. Nonetheless, the current study, together with earlier research (Davis & Dukes, 2015a, 2015bMorera et al, 2015Morera et al, , 2017, show what a tailored and targeted subsidy for smart irrigation technologies to reduce residential demand would look like. It is worth noting that 6 years following the project's implementation, survey participants in the controller treatments had more than three times the average number of water-saving irrigation technologies than survey participants in the MO group, which did not receive controllers in 2011.…”

“…Studies throughout the state have shown that, under residential high-water-use conditions, smart controller-based irrigation systems apply substantially less water than conventional timebased systems without compromising turf quality (Cárdenas-Lailhacar & Dukes, 2012;Davis & Dukes, 2012, 2015aHaley & Dukes, 2012). Tailoring promotion of smart controllers to homeowners with excessive irrigation, however, is key to achieving significant water savings (Davis & Dukes, 2015b;Dukes, 2012). Even then, homeowner response is dependent on factors beyond the performance of the technologies (Morera, Monaghan, Dukes, & Breder, 2017;Morera, Monaghan, Dukes, Wells, & Davis, 2015).…”

Journal of Applied Communications 100(3) Full Issue

“…A high water user was defined as living in specific counties within the state, having an irrigated landscape and hiring an outside landscaping company to manage their landscape. Previous literature has identified individuals with these characteristics as consuming an unusually high amount of water to ensure they have a green, lush home landscape (Davis & Dukes, 2014;Huang, Lamm, & Dukes, 2015). The study was limited to Florida because water has been identified as the top issue facing the agricultural and natural resource sector despite it being surrounded by water on three sides and having an extensive spring system.…”