| Investigators
Joanna Endter-Wada - Department of Environment and Society, Natural Resource and
Environmental Policy Program, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University
Arthur Caplan - Department of Economics, Colleges of Business and Agriculture, Utah State University
Peggy Petrzelka - Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, College of
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Utah State University
Theresa Selfa - Western Rural Development Center, Utah State University Extension
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| Abstract
Drought management and the long-term sustainability of expanding populations living in arid
regions of the Western United States require that we have a better understanding of the factors
influencing human behaviors toward the environment, more generally, and toward water as a
critical and limited resource. Promoting water conservation is important not only in urban
environments, but is important for addressing ecological, recreation, and aesthetic concerns and
the needs of rural communities. Water shortages and water quality issues are global, not simply
local. Understanding water conservation behaviors is part of the key to promoting the efficient
and equitable allocation of water and the maintenance of water quality.
Scientists focused on understanding human populations (“human scientists,” meaning policy,
economic, social, and cultural scientists of various stripes) have attempted to explain “conservation behavior” (or “environmentally-friendly behavior”) in relation to recycling,
resource conservation (e.g., conserving water, electricity, and fossil fuels), purchasing “green
products,” and interactions with specific aspects of the natural world (e.g., animals, unique
landforms, and rare species). Human scientists have looked at a variety of factors, including
attitudes, values, knowledge, demographics, motivations (including various internal and external
incentives and disincentives, concerns for environmental quality, social pressure, altruism, and
convenience), and contextual factors (e.g., “crisis response”) as possible predictors of
conservation behavior. None of these factors have been particularly successful at explaining the
full range of variability in conservation behaviors. A more complete understanding of
conservation behaviors has direct implications for the potential success of programs designed to
encourage resource conservation. The potential efficacy of utilizing education, pricing
mechanisms, other types of economic incentives, regulatory approaches, and/or combinations of
these approaches for encouraging conservation behavior is hotly debated among human scientists and policy makers.
The literature suggests and we are convinced that conservation behavior is the result of a
complex mix of factors that can only be understood by addressing the problem in an
interdisciplinary fashion. First of all, there is a need for human scientists to synthesize the findings on conservation behavior from their various disciplines. In this regard, two areas of
inquiry deserve more attention: investigating the formation of habits whereby conservation
becomes instilled and results in longer-term lifestyle changes; and, recognizing and addressing
the scale question in human decision-making that greatly influences people’s ability to engage in
behaviors consistent with their values, knowledge, motivations, etc. (humans participate in
decision-making as individuals, members of households, members of groups, employees in
workplaces and institutions, and citizens of communities and larger polities).
Secondly, there is a need for human scientists to work more closely with scientists from the
physical, ecological, and engineering sciences to understand conservation behavior. Several
interesting and potentially fruitful areas of inquiry into conservation behavior relate specifically
to the way in which people’s interaction with and knowledge of the natural environment is
meditated by the technology that they use (in one recent article, this is referred to as the “social-technical
landscape”) and the role that designers and devices play in the use of everyday items
and, therefore, behaviors. A line of inquiry that USU researchers Endter-Wada, Kjelgren, and
Neale are pursuing in relation to urban landscape water use is revealing that the irrigation system
itself is the biggest predictor of landscape water use. Applying water to urban landscapes is a
complex system involving the interaction of soil type, plant ecology, irrigation technology, and
human factors that have not been well researched in the past and deserve further attention.
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