Population of different social strata and its preferences in urban stormwater management

Abstract Many Brazilian municipalities have specific legislation focused on the management of urban stormwater with the main purpose runoff control. Among the promoted measures are the mandatory implementation of different devices that operate storing or infiltrating the runoff, compensating its impact. This practice is known as compensatory technique (CT). Given the different possible CT that can be chosen, this article presents the main preferences and perceptions of the population in three different socioeconomic groups. The study was accomplished in the city of Santa Maria / RS, that as other municipalities of medium size, should also adopt some sort of public policy towards the stormwater management. A total of 518 households were surveyed in representative districts of the upper lower class, upper middle class and lower middle class, who have the same guideline for land use. The results revealed important aspects regarding the understanding of the public to the management of rainwater in urban areas, and showed that the preference between storage or infiltration may be influenced by socioeconomic status. In addition, the survey was able to identify that more than 90% of households have already knowledge about this type of public policy.摘要 巴西诸多市政辖区均制定了针对城市雨水管理的专项立法，核心目标为径流管控。其中推广的措施包括强制安装各类用于储存或渗透径流、以抵消其不良影响的设施，该实践被称为补偿技术（compensatory technique，CT）。鉴于可选择的补偿技术类型多样，本文针对三类不同社会经济群体，调研了民众对此类措施的主要偏好与认知情况。本研究在圣玛丽亚市（Santa Maria / RS）开展，该市与其他中等规模市政辖区一样，也需制定相关雨水管理公共政策。本研究在覆盖低上层阶级、中上层阶级与中下层阶级的代表性街区中共调研了518户家庭，这些街区的土地利用准则一致。研究结果揭示了公众对城市雨水管理的认知要点，并表明民众对径流储存或渗透设施的偏好可能受社会经济地位影响。此外，调研结果显示，超过90%的家庭已了解此类公共政策。