Patterns of water-wise residential landscaping in a drought-prone city

Abstract

The replacement of turf lawns with water-wise landscaping has become a common tactic for water conservation in drought-prone cities and is often incentivized through rebate programs that subsidize the cost of turf conversion. The impact of rebate programs increases if neighbors are inspired to adopt water-wise landscaping independently. However, turf conversion is expensive even with a rebate, and residents may have non-financial reasons for maintaining lawns or installing water-wise landscaping independently. We explored the distribution of water-wise yards and rebate recipients in relation to sociodemographic and biophysical landscape characteristics across the city of Sacramento, California, USA. For 100 census tracts in Sacramento, we visually assessed the landscaping in front of every single-family home to classify it as water-wise or conventional. We found that ∼10% of 109,062 sampled yards were water-wise, while only 0.3% were rebate recipients. We also found that water-wise yards were clustered, suggesting a neighborhood adoption effect. Water-wise yards and rebate recipients were positively correlated with educational attainment, white population, income, and tree canopy, and negatively correlated with July temperature and households with children. Our research shows that most water-wise landscaping in Sacramento has been installed without rebates, in areas with greater shading and socioeconomic status. Rebates did not appear to offset barriers to turf conversion, but may inspire neighborhood adoption. Our findings suggest that while water-wise landscaping is becoming more prevalent, it is not accessible or desirable for all residents, potentially contributing to uneven distributions of urban water use and ecosystem services.