Rain Campaign Community Survey

The Rain Campaign worked with the Environmental Science and Sustainability Department at Drake University to understand people's awareness and knowledge about resources for rainscaping practices in Polk County. Between March 2024 to September 2024, the team collected 298 responses using a combination of web-based and paper surveys. Attending 18 different neighborhood meetings and several community events like rain barrel workshops, neighborhood farmers markets, the Earth Day fair at the botanical gardens, and more, our team accumulated responses from all over Polk County. However, based on the events we visited, all survey respondents demonstrate some capacity for community engagement.

The  Rain Campaign  is a nonprofit organization established in 2019 with a focus on providing the Polk County community with the necessary resources to be part of the solution for managing stormwater runoff. Polk County offers rebate programs for residents to implement practices like rain barrels, rain gardens, native landscaping, permeable pavers, and more. These rebate programs cover up to 50% of the cost and are available to anyone who applies.

Residential areas see high concentrations of impermeable surfaces and compact soils. The solutions associated with these rebate programs are important in mitigating flooding and water quality issues that exist because of residential and city landscapes. The different best management practices aim to increase absorption in local environments. Implementation and support of mitigation practices is known as "rainscaping." Practices like rain barrels, rain gardens, and more can fix problems like poor lawn health, ponding, and drainage issues. In addition, it reduces the amount of runoff traveling through the watershed and contaminates the local water bodies. Reducing water has additional benefits like limiting erosion and keeping harsh chemicals out of waterways.

After 5 years, the Rain Campaign has successfully provided assistance for 512 projects depicted on Map 1 above. The result from this survey can inform how Polk County residents can be further encouraged to benefit from the resources and cost-sharing programs outlined in the Rain Campaign website.

The series of pie charts below illustrates the demographic of residents who answered the survey in neighborhood meetings and community events. It is important to note that people who attend these types of events typically engage more with public agendas and promotional materials. They may have more motivation to participate in public programming than the typical community member.

potentially Our respondents are mostly White women between 25 and 44 years old with household income of at least $70,000. Approximately 27 percent earn less than $70,000 annually. With 296 respondents answering that question, at least fifteen respondents might benefit from further cost-sharing support to implement rain management practices.

About 75 percent respondents are between 25 and 65 years old presenting opportunities for the Rain Campaign to improve outreach to these age groups. This is an impressionable age where many people are trying to alter some of their life practices so they can be better suited for the future. For some, this may mean ensuring their yard is in proper shape to sustain itself in the future. With this information, the Rain Campaign can customize marketing to try and leverage it within certain populations.

Property damage is the main concern for heavy rain events, followed by erosion, water ponding, and water pollution.

Respondents are more likely to implement a rainscaping project if they are eligible for financial assistance.

Figure 3 illustrates the stark likelihood of whether or not respondents would implement each rainscaping practice depending on whether or not they are eligible for financial assistance.

Installing rain barrels, planting trees, adopting native landscaping, and altering rain spout direction are shown to be actions that people are willing to do although they may not be eligible for the cost-sharing program. Without financial support, people are 50% less likely to implement any management practices. However, people are reluctant to do soil quality restoration regardless of financial assistance. This could indicate new avenues of outreach as it seems as though respondents may not understand what soil quality restorations require.

Raising awareness about the Rain Campaign is critical moving forward.

The majority of respondents noted that they are not aware of the resources available to them (67 %) illustrating further need to expand the Rain Campaign program to raise awareness (See Figure 4).

Those that are aware of the cost-sharing program cite multiple reasons for not taking actions: laziness, guideline restrictions, amongst other reasons (19 %). Both limited space (5 %) and high project cost (6%) are also cited. Additionally, respondents commented how the implementation timeline was too tedious and long for them.

In the interactive map below, it is evident that most Rain Campaign locations are found in the West Side of Polk County. These changes exist within the modern, flatter communities with higher household income range. It's crucial that the Rain Campaign increases its outreach on the East Side so that Rain Campaign locations can be distributed well throughout the watershed. With the confluence of the Des Moines River and the Raccoon River sitting on the East side of Polk County it seems especially important that mitigation techniques exist within the area. Without Rain Campaign location in this area, the work of locations upriver seemingly "goes to waste" as contaminants and other issues associated with runoff persist.