EXAMINING THE USER EXPERIENCE IN CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE POLICIES: TUCSON ARIZONA'S RESIDENTIAL GRAY WATER RECYCLING

Abstract

Urban areas face various resource strains in adapting to climate change. Adaptive management strategies can provide ways for cities to transition to more resilient policies, however, adaptive management requires that governments be willing to be reflexive, taking in feedback for iteration, as they design policies to address complex social-ecological challenges. Acknowledging the fundamental role that stakeholders and ‘end users’ play in implementing said policies is imperative to achieving the desired policy outcomes. This research explores Tucson Arizona’s Residential Graywater Ordinance (RGWO) (a building ordinance intended to reduce potable water use) as a case study example of a climate-adaptive policy. The effectiveness of the RGWO was evaluated through nine in-depth stakeholder interviews and the surveying 57 home owners (end users) about their experience reusing water from their homes. Only six of the participants currently (4) or previously (2) (estimated 10.5%) of surveyed residents have reused graywater from their homes. The results indicate that the ordinance did not facilitate additional water reuse at the residential scale due to various barriers experienced by end users. Tying together user experience research, socio-ecological system thinking, climate-adaptive policy design, and environmental psychology, this research examines the role of user experience in climate-adaptive policy design while offering a research framework for synthesizing new fields.