In California, Fresno did not have water metering until 2013. Urban residential water use in Fresno has been the highest of all the large metropolitan areas in five southwestern states. Water scarcity is one of the biggest issues, however water use by homeowners in the urban Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area (FCMA) does not represent such water scarcity. Lack of high water pricing, cultural values, sense of aesthetics, and lack of knowledge on the rapid rate of groundwater depletion may have caused overuse of water by urban homeowners. There is also a general dearth of information on low water landscaping using drought tolerant plants in the Central Valley. The main focus of the project was to study homeowner’s perception on water use and their influence on urban biodiversity. Surveys were conducted among homeowners throughout FCMA. One of the objectives of this project was to include 5th grade students (water study is part of the curriculum) and reach out to their parents for survey. Two MAGNET schools in the Fresno Unified School district participated in this study. These parents were a representation of people ranging from higher socioeconomic class to English as a second language speakers and people from low socioeconomic classes, as well as underserved communities from different parts of the city. Fresno and Clovis are highly segregated cities in terms of socioeconomics and ethnicity, although Fresno has high ethnic diversity compared to other large cities of its size within the USA. The survey form included questions regarding water use and water footprint analysis of the students and their family members, current vegetation, and what information they would require to change the landscape and their perception on biodiversity of the yards. Students worked with parents to estimate the water footprints of their home, recorded plants and animals in the yards.
Results/Conclusions
Results suggest that most homeowners, regardless of education level or socio economic condition and ethnicity, did not have information on low water landscape and perceived that low water landscapes are equivalent to rocks and cacti. They prefer grass over low water vegetations and reluctant to change even during the four year long drought. However students understood the role of drought and importance of water conservation especially when they calculated their water footprint and compared that with other cities of similar size. They were also able to talk to parents about the concern of high water use for grass lawns in the yards.