Predicting Residential Lawn Watering Conservation Intentions Among Texas Homeowners: A Theory of Planned Behavior

Because residential lawn irrigation represents a significant amount of urban water demand, homeowners play a central role in promoting sustainable and resilient communities. Understanding the motivations underlying their lawn watering decisions can help promote desirable and sustainable conservation behaviors. Using survey data from 500 Texas homeowners, this study compared attitudinal, normative, and contextual factors and lawn water conservation intentions across irrigation types. It also examined the relative contribution of these factors, alongside demographic and residential characteristics, in predicting lawn watering conservation intentions. Homeowners mainly relied on environmental and regulatory factors—rainfall, drought conditions, and water-use restrictions for lawn watering decisions. Social factors were rarely considered. Conservation intentions were strongest for routine low-effort practices (e.g., morning watering) and weakest for more technical tasks (e.g., smart irrigation controllers). Automatic irrigators reported the strongest intentions for technology-based practices; they scored significantly higher on contextual factors and social and institutional norms (p < 0.05). Hierarchical regression was significant, explaining 28% of the variance in conservation intentions (adjusted R2 = 0.26, F(12, 463) = 14.68, p < 0.001). Social and institutional norms (β = 0.20, p = 0.002), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.18, p < 0.001), and age (β = −0.23, p < 0.001) were the strongest predictors of conservation intention. Water bill rate considerations (β = 0.10, p = 0.043) and residential setting (β = −0.08, p = 0.046) were also significant. Attitudes towards lawn water preservation, aesthetics, HOA rules, environmental and regulatory norms, sex, ownership status, and HOA membership were not significant. Extension programming should combine technical assistance and norm-based strategies to encourage residential water conservation and promote sustainable urban water management in drought-prone communities.