The Social-Ecology of Residential Landscape Management: Complex Causes, Effects, and Tradeoffs in the Sonoran Desert of Phoenix, AZ

The ubiquity of lawns in the U.S. and elsewhere leads to significant demands on water resources, among other implications for society and ecology in cities. Although the monocultural lawn may be heralded for its hyper-green, weed-free aesthetic, which is entrenched in the social-psyche of many suburban residents, concerns about the impacts of landscape management on urban ecology and sustainability (e.g., due to fertilizer and pesticide usage) have risen in recent years and decades. Accordingly, research on the social-ecological causes, consequences, and feedbacks of residents’ landscaping decisions has increased. Yet much of this work has been narrow or limited in focus, scale, or approach. This poster will present an in-depth, interdisciplinary case study from Phoenix, AZ to demonstrate key findings for multiple studies, specifically in terms of the following themes:  complex, counterintuitive and contradictory effects of attitudinal preferences on landscaping decisions; critical tradeoffs among landscape choices, such as ‘mesic’ lawns versus ‘xeric’ drought-tolerant alternatives; and, lasting and important role of legacy effects and structural constraints on residents’ yard-management decisions. Emerging insights from cross-regional, comparative research will also be addressed, particularly considering the ‘homogeneity thesis’ that posits sub/urbanization is a standardizing force in landscaping decisions and practices (i.e., following the industrial lawn norm).