Human-Water Infrastructure Interactions: Substituting Services Received for Bottled and Filtered Water in US Shrinking Cities

Aging infrastructure has caused municipalities to experience an increasing number of water-related challenges, such as noncompliance with water-quality standards or failing infrastructure. Consequentially, with heightened levels of public concern toward drinking water, residents might opt to use bottled or filtered water over tap water. Shrinking cities characteristically have underutilized systems due to chronic urban decline occurring over multiple decades without a corresponding reduction in the infrastructure footprint. Substituting products and using point-of-use filtration systems further exacerbates this problem of decreased demand, and the associated costs may be burdensome to low-income residents, who often comprise upward of 40% of shrinking-city residents. An online survey was deployed in June 2016 to 21 US shrinking cities. A mixed-method approach sought to assess public attitudes toward water received at the tap and to understand the public behavior of using bottled and filtered water in US shrinking cities. Statistical analyses revealed parameters influencing the likelihood of using bottled and filtered water. Qualitative analyses provided insight into how these substitute behaviors are occurring in the household. (c) 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.