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- Title
- Beyond Water Restrictions: Informing Effective Lawn Watering Behavior.
- Creator
- Survis, Felicia D., Root, Tara L., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
Evaluating trends of historical rainfall on a weekly and seasonal basis is needed for optimizing the design and implementation of lawn water conservation strategies like outdoor water restrictions. While “day of the week” water restrictions are a typical strategy to limit the frequency and duration of urban lawn water use, they may not necessarily result in more conservative behaviors from end-users. Because weekly rainfall and local climate variables are seldom taken into account in water...
Show moreEvaluating trends of historical rainfall on a weekly and seasonal basis is needed for optimizing the design and implementation of lawn water conservation strategies like outdoor water restrictions. While “day of the week” water restrictions are a typical strategy to limit the frequency and duration of urban lawn water use, they may not necessarily result in more conservative behaviors from end-users. Because weekly rainfall and local climate variables are seldom taken into account in water restriction strategies, they are not connected to actual lawn water demand. However, since lawn water demand is directly related to weekly rainfall totals, not to a particular number of watering days per week, water restriction schedules have the potential to unintentionally promote overwatering. This study investigated the weekly patterns of average seasonal rainfall and evapotranspiration in South Florida to determine the typical variability of weekly net irrigation needs and found that typical wet season weekly rainfall often provides a significant amount of water to meet the demand of residential lawns and landscapes. This finding underscores opportunity to reduce supplemental overwatering in residential landscapes if watering guidelines were modified to recognize seasonal average weekly rainfall in this region This study also tested a rainfall-based water conservation strategy to determine if providing residents with information about how local rainfall could promote more effective lawn watering behavior than just water restrictions alone. Experimental households reduced lawn water use by up to 61% compared to the control group by the end of the study. These results demonstrate that the neighborhood “rain-watered lawn” signs helped experimental study group households become more aware of rainfall as the primary input of water to their lawns. This study also investigated the role that lawn irrigation from self-supplied sources plays in the urban lawn water demand and investigates how the lawn water use and lawn watering behaviors of households that source from self-supply differ from those who source from the public supply.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004710
- Subject Headings
- Landscape irrigation, Municipal water supply, South Florida Water Management District, Water conservation, Water consumption, Water resources development
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Residential lawn water use and lawn irrigation practices: Wellington, Florida.
- Creator
- Survis, Felicia D., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
Water conservation initiatives seldom quantify the volume of water that is at stake in lawn watering. In many communities, including those in South Florida, outdoor water use, which includes lawn irrigation, is not metered separately from indoor water use and is indistinguishable from indoor water usage. A large number of residents use self supply non-potable wells for lawn irrigation that are not regulated by the South Florida Water Management District. The result is that residential lawn...
Show moreWater conservation initiatives seldom quantify the volume of water that is at stake in lawn watering. In many communities, including those in South Florida, outdoor water use, which includes lawn irrigation, is not metered separately from indoor water use and is indistinguishable from indoor water usage. A large number of residents use self supply non-potable wells for lawn irrigation that are not regulated by the South Florida Water Management District. The result is that residential lawn water use is difficult to account for and quantify. This thesis project addressed these difficulties by combining semistructured interviews, daily watering observations and irrigation system audits to ascertain how much public supply water and self supply (well) water was being used for residential lawn irrigation. The study also examined lawn watering practices and how factors such as: precipitation, the minimum plant needs of St. Augstinegrass, and how local watering restrictions influenced watering behavior.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2705082
- Subject Headings
- Lawns, Water resources development, Landscape irrigation, Water consumption, Municipal water supply
- Format
- Document (PDF)