A theoretical framework for understanding factors that contribute to household adoption of rainwater harvesting in south east Queensland

This paper examines the experiences of South East Queensland (SEQ) households concerning rainwater harvesting (RH). Although the adoption of household rainwater harvesting is currently booming after extended stagnation at around 8% in SEQ, what actually motivates this adoption is not well understood. A survey of 90 households in Ipswich (one of 18 Local Government Areas in the region) comprising three groups (with an existing RH installation, retrofitted RH installation, and no RH installation) completed a 200+ item written survey spanning household decision making, household behaviour, household beliefs, household RH system characteristics and demographics. A theoretical framework is developed for household adoption of RH systems through an exploratory synthesis of Ecological Modernisation Theory’s (EMT) systemic perspective on households as consumers in a market driven by pro-environmental (PE) technologies, together with Everett Rogers’ actor-centred theory on the Diffusion of Innovation. The empirical rigour of these two theories is examined by overlaying survey data on core elements of the theories. This paper reports on the pilot study for my thesis, which has the three aims of (a) characterising issues in RH adoption in the aggregated experience of the wider south east Queensland community, and (b) evaluating Ecological Modernisation and Diffusion of Innovation as tools for understanding adoption patterns in household rainwater harvesting to (c) determine a valid, reliable and robust way of describing or predicting the adoption of pro-environmental (PE) technologies. Quantitative and qualitative data are used to conceptually and empirically develop eleven constructs in the synthesis of the two theoretical positions to arrive at a framework that provides theoretical refinement of the household RH adoption phenomena.