Water demand management: Visualising a public good

PLoS One. 2020 Jun 16;15(6):e0234621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234621. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Recent studies on water demand management show that providing visual information on water usage along with social comparisons with neighbouring households resulted in more efficient water usage. However, social comparisons can be discomforting for participants, especially in the case of downward or negative evaluations. To avoid this, some studies promote the use of social identity, a social norm approach that avoids comparisons. Past studies using social comparison used infographics, whereas other study types have used only textual (non-graphic) information. Therefore, in this study, we created a visualisation of water usage to highlight the importance of water as a shared resource, that is, as a public good, and feedback over six months according to the participants' water usage. A difference-in-difference analysis indicated that the feedback was marginally significant in decreasing water consumption immediately and continuously, especially for the middle and low use households, during the summer months, which is a period of perceived water shortage. From the questionnaire survey, we found that households felt that they determined their water usage based on their preference and were satisfied with the outcome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Economics
  • Humans
  • Population Health Management*
  • Social Identification
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Water Resources / supply & distribution*
  • Water Supply / methods*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by JSPS: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (b), grant number JP18H04324 to YO, LIXIL Jyukankyo Foundation grant number 17-42 to YO, and SECOM Science and Technology Foundation grant number 2018 to KU. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.