Residential Adoption of Best Landscape Management Practices: Effects of Outreach to Reduce Non-Point Source Pollution

Urban waterways degradation due to runoff from residential areas can be reduced by adopting best management practices (BMPs) for irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticide use. Although stormwater urban has been studied extensively, we focus on single-family land use specifically. Outreach individual households may have a measurable impact since decisions are being made here. We surveyed evaluate the effectiveness of education outreach campaigns self-reported water chemicals evaluated whether behaviors were reflected in quality quantity draining study before after efforts. Our research was conducted California, which Mediterranean climate with distinct wet dry periods. Runoff landscapes during season enters undiluted rainwater, making this particularly detrimental receiving waters. No significant differences behavior BMP adoption campaign found. These results not atypical explained several factors including population approach survey, lag times between effects, need critical threshold met effects measurable.