Agent-Based Model to Manage Household Water Use Through Social-Environmental Strategies of Encouragement and Peer Pressure

• Main Author: James, Ryan
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 2019
• Subjects: Household; iUTAH; Logan; Utah; Attitudes; Peer Support; Opportunities; Social Network; Validation; Theory of Planned Behavior; Water Conservation; Conservation Action Adoption; Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7581; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8714&context=etd

Inelastic price responses, demand hardening, and poor public awareness reduce the effectiveness of demand side strategies on water savings. This project quantified phycological household’s factors of attitudes, peer support, opportunities on water conservation with two social-environmental management strategies of encouragement and peer pressure. An agent-based model was populated with data for Logan, Utah using surveys, municipal billing, aerial imagery, weather monitoring stations, and flow, frequency, and durations of appliance use data. Results indicated those households with higher attitudes, peer support and opportunities saved the most water while peer pressure saved more than encouragement when using small and diverse social networks that could better regulate the behavior of outlier households within the network. Combined peer pressure and encouragement saved the most water as each strategy complimented one other. Managers can use results to identify and target large use households. Managers should recommend opportunities to conserve water through monthly bills and provide platforms for households to share their water use stories and information with each other.