Geoscience Reference
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Fig. 2.3 Residents' perceived water use rates: frequency of survey responses (N
¼
316)
the low-use category, 38% (n
4)
exhibited high rates of consumption. While high demand neighborhoods are
concentrated in east-central Phoenix, including some areas of the downtown, low-
demand census block groups are distributed across the city (Fig.
2.2
).
Residents' perceptions about water use were analyzed at two spatial scales to
capture the individual judgments of Phoenix-based survey respondents as well as
the aggregate sentiments of local residents in neighborhoods with low to high
demand rates. Individual perceptions (n
¼
6) had average water demand, and 25% (n
¼
316) for personal water consumption
ranged from 1 (
much lower
)to5(
much higher)
, with a mean response of 2.43
(i.e., a little less than average demand) and a standard deviation of 0.92 (Fig.
2.3
).
At the aggregated scale, mean perceptions for our typology neighborhoods
(n
¼
16) ranged from 1.85 to 2.76, with a standard deviation of 0.25. These results
suggest that residents tend to see their water consumption habits as normal, or about
average, and many individuals perceive themselves as using relatively low amounts
of water.
Reclassified into three broader categories to reflect perceived water use (i.e., low
to high), 54% of individual respondents said they use less water than others, 35%
said about the same (or average), and 11% said they use more than others. At the
neighborhood scale, perceptions about water use ranged from low (56%) to average
(44%), with zero falling into the high perceived-use category (Table
2.1
). In terms
of their spatial distribution, the Phoenix neighborhoods with both low and average
perceived water-use rates were scattered around central and newer fringe areas of
the city, but those where residents perceive their water use as relatively low tended
to be more centrally located and in western portions of the city (Fig.
2.2
). Since
nearly half of the neighborhoods displayed a collective sentiment indicating a
dominant perception of low consumption, our findings may suggest a weak sense
of responsibility among residents for conserving water.
¼
