Identifying barriers to installing above-ground rainwater tanks in urban households in Aotearoa New Zealand: a segmentation approach

Urbanisation poses numerous challenges to fresh water biodiversity, and installation of above-ground rainwater tanks on private properties is one important tool for addressing these challenges. In this paper, we used an online survey targeting a representative sample of 1291 urban residents to investigate their underlying capabilities, opportunities, and motivations for installation of above-ground rainwater tanks on their properties. Only 221 (17%) of the 1,291 respondents already had an above-ground rainwater tank installed on their property. By segmenting on behavioural variables, we found that those urban residents who currently did not have a water tank on their property were not homogeneous. We identified three audience segments, ‘Supportive’ (19%), ‘Receptive’ (59%) and ‘Reluctant’ (22%), each with their own unique driver and barrier combination to rainwater tank installation. Suitable leverage points and behaviour change tools (e.g. education, enablement, incentivisation) and message framing (environmental, community, or functional benefits) are identified for each segment.