Rainwater harvesting: theorising and modelling issues that influence household adoption

摘要

Household adoption of rainwater harvesting (RH) systems recently boomed in Australian urbanncentres. As a sustainable supplement to the mains supply, water authorities regarded RH as andemand management device. Yet what actually motivated household RH adoption was not wellnunderstood. Burawoy’s ‘extended case method’ was used to link grounded enquiry with 13 corentheoretical concepts drawn from an original synthesis of ecological modernisation and diffusion ofninnovation theories. This framework means the household experience extends ideas drawn fromnexisting theory to explore issues that influence the household RH adoption decision.nThe framework was interrogated with data drawn from a self-report survey of 560 homes.nIt accommodated 100% of the RH adoption issues identified by households. Further stagednquantitative and qualitative analyses particularized these core concepts out to 36 discreten‘subfactors’ which were used in discriminant function analyses. 17 subfactors contribute tona discriminant function grouping 89.2% of households to the correct ‘adopter’ or ‘nonadopter’ncategory ( p , 0.000). The model provides a transparent, robust, empirical basis fornunderstanding the issues that influence household RH adoption and can be applied to socialnmarketing aimed at facilitating further penetration of household RH.