Irrigation Conservation of Florida-Friendly Landscaping Based on Water Billing Data
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 12
Abstract
Supplemental irrigation is often required to maintain residential landscapes in Florida, but existing and projected water shortages have led to an increased focus on reducing the amount of publically supplied potable water used for irrigation. Florida-Friendly Landscaping (FFL) has been promoted as a method to reduce irrigation, but the actual water savings has not been previously quantified. Analysis of monthly combined (indoor and outdoor) potable water billing records and parcel data for 125 FFL and 736 traditionally landscaped comparison homes in southwest Florida indicated that FFL homes used 50% less irrigation. Irrigation savings increased to 76% when considering only good examples of FFL and comparison landscapes with high-quality turfgrass. The FFL customers reduced their irrigation use () after their landscapes became recognized (). Prior to recognition, these customers were already using less irrigation than their neighbors (279 versus , respectively), indicating that those most concerned with water use were more likely to choose Florida-Friendly Landscaping. The results of this study demonstrate the ability of alternative landscapes in a hot, humid climate to conserve potable water used for irrigation; however, mechanisms for irrigation reduction in these landscapes are still unknown.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the following funding agencies for making this work possible: Southwest Florida Water Management District and Tampa Bay Water. The authors would also like to thank Michael Gutierrez and Sara Wynn for their assistance on this project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 12 • December 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 11, 2013
Accepted: Apr 30, 2014
Published online: Jun 13, 2014
Discussion open until: Nov 13, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2014
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