Modeling the Adoption of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Considering Cognitive Biases

Many barriers obstruct green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) implementation, particularly in residential areas where it primarily relies on voluntary buy-in. Thus, it is necessary to determine the most effective mitigation strategies and raise attention to them. This paper considers cognitive biases in decision-making to quantitatively simulate their influence on GSI adoption behaviors in residential areas. The overall goal is to model the adoption of GSI measures in residential areas by incorporating the cognitive biases of residential-based adopters. The methods include agent-based modeling with the model framed by the theory of planned behavior. Data used in the model included survey data collected from participants who reside in the study area and values from the literature. The results show that cognitive biases, when both status quo and loss aversion biases are present, could significantly limit adoption, especially when the initial adopters are sparse. Overall, the main contribution of this work is to provide insights into how cognitive biases may impact long-term GSI implementation planning