Water savings or water efficiency? Water-use attitudes and behaviour in rural and regional areas

Abstract

Drought conditions in southwest Victoria, as in other regions of Australia and around the world, have caused the need to reduce water consumption to ensure security of supply into the future. To develop effective water-saving behaviour change strategies, an understanding of people's attitudes to the behaviour, including barriers stopping them from adopting the behaviour, is required. Thus, this paper explores the water-use behaviours and attitudes of rural and regional urban water users in southwest Victoria. A conceptual model of the factors impacting on water use of these users, including drivers and barriers to water saving, is developed. The factors that appear to impact on water-use behaviour not previously identified included the source of water supply (groundwater versus surface water), previous experience with water shortages and trust in the water authority and government. Also, a difference in the drivers for water saving was found, with farmers wanting to be 'water efficient' to keep their business viable and productive, while hobby farmers and residential users were 'saving water' for more altruistic reasons. These findings have implications for development of demand management strategies in this, and other, rural and regional areas. However, the conceptual model has to be tested to determine if it truly reflects factors influencing water-saving behaviour in rural and regional areas.

Responding to the Drought: A Spatial Statistical Approach to Investigating Residential Water Consumption in Fresno, California

“…This is consistent with the argument that a water-saving culture could be achieved by increasing the awareness of water scarcity [43]. Moreover, the survey data show that three income groups exhibited distinct water-use behaviors and attitudes.…”

The Influence of Structural Conditions and Cultural Inertia on Water Usage and Landscape Decision-Making in a California Metropolitan Area

“…However, as both a good and a service, water is usually priced at a low rate in industrialized and post-industrial countries as it is deemed essential to human survival [14], and its market price reflects the delivery of service rather than the resource itself [23][24][25][26]. Graymore and Wallis [8] (p. 84) stated that mandatory water restrictions show more consistent reduction in water use compared to voluntary restrictions which show more variable results [26]. Thus, water pricing may reduce water consumption under certain conditions [8,17,27], but most municipal water departments avoid water pricing policies that could encourage conservation [28].…”

“…Thus, water pricing may reduce water consumption under certain conditions [8,17,27], but most municipal water departments avoid water pricing policies that could encourage conservation [28]. Some research indicates that since rate structure is not fully understood by the households and the bill is not a large proportion of the household budget, the cost of water is negligible for budgetary decision making in most households [8,15].…”

“…Kundzewim [1] (p. 291) states that in water-stressed areas, any improvement in efficiency of water use is valuable. Urban development and planning are increasingly centered on matters of sustainability, balancing economic development with ecosystem services and biotic structures within urban environments [2][3][4] Water is one of the key natural resources for urban development and the sustainability of biotic structures [5][6][7][8][9], and an integrated and holistic approach to the development and management of water is therefore necessary [1]. Academic research has taken into account the interrelationships between the 2 of 18 social and natural spheres using models that address complexity, such as the socio-ecological systems (SES) approach [10].…”

The Influence of Structural Conditions and Cultural Inertia on Water Usage and Landscape Decision-Making in a California Metropolitan Area

“…Urban development and planning are increasingly centered on matters of sustainability, balancing economic development with ecosystem services and biotic structures within urban environments [2][3][4]. Water is one of the key natural resources for urban development and the sustainability of biotic structures [5][6][7][8][9], and thus requires an integrated and holistic approach to its development and management [1]. Academic research has taken into account the interrelationships between the human social and natural spheres using models that address complexity, such as the socio-ecological systems (SES) approach [10].…”