Modeling multi-scale influences on household lawncare decisions: Formal and informal neighborhood conforming effects on fertilizer use

Hydro-bio-geo-socio-chemical interactions and the sustainability of residential landscapes

“…That said, the likelihood of fertilizer use and application frequency are significantly higher among identifiable household types. Newburn et al ( 37 ) found that wealthier households with newer, larger homes are more likely to apply fertilizer and hire professional lawn care companies who apply fertilizer more frequently. These findings can help identify hotspots for lawn fertilizer application, thereby enabling policies and programs to be more effectively targeted.…”

“…Full methods and results are provided in Refs. ( 36 , 37 ) and in the Online Supplementary Appendix . The survey was implemented over a random sample of single-family homeowners in Baltimore City and County, screened from a spatially explicit parcel-level tax assessor database to select owner-occupied residential lot sizes of 0.04 to 2 ha and ≥23 m 2 of lawn area using high-resolution (1-m) land cover.…”

“…The push-to-web household survey supported multiple analyses of household behavior and policy support related to lawn care practices and fertilizer use. First, a two-step statistical model of fertilizer application behavior was estimated to account for household- and neighborhood-scale influences, parsed into informal and formal neighborhood effects ( 37 ). The model was estimated using N = 2,635 observations from the push-to-web survey that provided sufficiently complete response data on fertilizer use and household characteristics.…”

“…Detailed measurements of water and nitrogen export were made on fertilized and unfertilized individual parcels in suburban, exurban, and institutional settings in the study region ( 34 , 35 ). At the same time, extensive telephone and push-to-web surveys were carried out to quantify patterns of household fertilizer use and related behaviors such as lawn conversions to rain gardens or conservation landscaping ( 36 , 37 ). Surveys also assessed households’ knowledge and attitudes toward fertilizer restrictions and the effect of policy changes on their willingness to adopt alternative lawn care and stormwater management practices ( 36 ).…”