Residential landscape aesthetics and water conservation best management practices: Homeowner perceptions and preferences

Up to 70% of residential water use goes to maintaining landscape plantings. With increasing water scarcity, changing the landscape preferences and choices of individual homeowners provides a crucial opportunity for water conservation. Using three demonstration landscapes varying in water conservation best management practices (BMPs), we surveyed attendees of a University of California Cooperative Extension educational event to determine preferences for the demonstration landscapes according to aesthetics as well as other preference criteria. The survey examined aesthetic preferences for BMPs at both the whole landscape level and the landscape component (turf, paving, non-turf vegetation) level whereas other preference criteria were examined only at the whole landscape level. Preference for the landscape with an intermediate amount of BMPs was the highest at the whole landscape level for nearly all criteria. Surprisingly, at the component level, homeowners exhibited preference for the more water conserving components. This indicates that BMPs are aesthetically appealing individually but when BMPs exist for every component in the landscape, the landscape is less preferred.