Reducing Residential Water Use in the Santa Clarita Valley

The Partnership

During the drought of 2015, residents of California’s Santa Clarita Valley stepped up their water conservation activities in a huge way. Participation in conservation programs like lawn replacement were at an all time high and the community seemed to be pulling together as a whole to reduce their use. In the years since then, participation in these water conservation programs has sharply decreased and remains low in 2023.

With increasingly stringent water conservation mandates set to be enforced by the state in the years to come, Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water) partnered with USC Dornsife Public Exchange to understand the language, knowledge and motivational barriers that keep customers from saving water. Public Exchange assembled a team of behavioral scientists and qualitative interviewers to engage with customers and determine what motivates them to conserve or not conserve water.

The insights from the research are helping SCV Water communicate better with their customers and design new programs and outreach efforts to mobilize community participation in SCV Water conservation programs, such as lawn replacement and water-saving irrigation systems.

Preparing for the Severity of Future Droughts

Across California, increasingly severe droughts require additional effort by residents, businesses and the community to conserve limited resources. In the Santa Clarita Valley, banked water reserves were depleted by 45% during the 2020-2022 drought. SCV Water developed several initiatives, including its Water Use Efficiency Strategic Plan and the Water Shortage Contingency Plan, to identify targeted areas of action. These initiatives are a key piece of the puzzle for water conservation in the community, but their adoption and success, at least in part, depend on how effectively the initiatives are communicated to customers.

What is Keeping Customers from Taking Action?

This study included qualitative interviews and a survey with SCV Water customers. The Public Exchange team’s interviews aimed to provide in-depth insights into the range and meaning of customer perspectives, behaviors and preferences around water use and conservation. Based on those insights, a survey was then sent to SCV Water customers to understand the prevalence of particular perspectives and behaviors around water conservation.

Most customers acknowledge the […]

Full article: publicexchange.usc.edu