Geoscience Reference
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likely to conserve water in a Mexico-based survey study. Thus, where residents
perceive their water use to be less than others, they might actually be less willing
to conserve, and therefore, they might exhibit relatively high water-use rates.
More generally, high consumption rates may partially reflect a lack of awareness
about water demand, such that residents are not motivated to conserve because
they think water use is already low. Alternatively, residents who perceive local
consumption to be high may have a greater sense of responsibility or efficacy for
conservation. If perceptions accurately reflect resource use, however, demand
might be low where perceptions of water use are low, or demand might be high
where residents' perceived uses are high.
Overall, although numerous studies have found discrepancies between intuitive
human judgments and environmental behaviors or conditions (e.g., see Slovic
1987
;
Stern
2000
), other empirical studies have shown influential relationships between
perceptions or other attitudinal judgments and water-use practices (e.g., Trumbo
and O'Keefe
2001
; Corral-Verdugo and Pinheiro
2006
). Kurz (
2002
) proposed that
the unreliable relationship between perceptions and behavior necessitates the
examination of environmental practices in relation to human judgments and a
suite of other potential explanatory variables for specific environmental issues.
Given conflicting findings on the relationships between expressed judgments and
observed practices, we specifically examine areas where residents' perceptions of
local water use rates do and do not correspond to metered water consumption in
Phoenix neighborhoods. We then consider how other determinants of demand, as
illustrated by previous studies, explain spatial variation in metered water use rates,
perceptions, and possibly their relationship to each other.
2.2.4 Conservation Programs
In part because different policy tools target distinctive determinants of demand
and varying motivators for human behaviors (Schneider and Ingram
1990
),
a mixture of conservation approaches is typically more effective than applying a
singular tactic to diverse settings. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, a
conservation program encompassing incentives, education, and price increases
substantially reduced municipal water demand, even when controlling for climatic
factors (Gutzler and Nims
2005
). The City of Phoenix has similarly sought to
reduce water consumption through varied approaches such as retrofitting houses
with water-saving devices, mandating low-flow fixtures, educating the public about
conservation, and implementing pricing schemes. Following an analysis of the
various conservation techniques used by the city, Campbell (
2004
) found that
pricing, regulation, and repeated personal communication have the greatest poten-
tial for significantly reducing residential water demand.
Additionally, while educational water conservation mailings proved ineffective,
targeted outreach to children and assistance programs for the elderly yielded
promising results. Balling and Gober (
2007
) further underscore the effective-
ness of targeted, multifaceted approaches to conservation, concluding that a
