The usual perception of consumers regarding water consumption is that their bills do not match their actual water consumption. However, this mismatch has been insufficiently studied; particularly for cases related to specific water-use patterns, water conservation practices, and user socio-demographics. In this study, a total of 776 households in 16 villages situated in the rural Wei River Basin are investigated to address the gap in the literature. Questionnaires and 3-day water diaries are used for data collection and comparison. Results show that significant relations exist between perceived water consumption and actual water consumption. Participants have different perceptions of specific water-use patterns. Participants tend to underestimate their outdoor and kitchen water consumption and overestimate their indoor water consumption. Females and elder consumers accurately estimate their water consumption, whereas consumers with high education levels and incomes underestimate their actual water consumption. The groups who can accurately estimate water consumption have better water conservation consciousness and water conservation practices than those who underestimate their water consumption. The huge disparities highlighted by the results suggest that community policies and programs to improve public water conservation consciousness or practices must be implemented to enhance consumer understanding of water consumption.

With the rapid progress of urbanization, the loss of cultivated land has attracted great attention worldwide, and economic compensation is one of the incentives commonly used by the governments to enhance farmers’ enthusiasm in protecting cultivated land. In recent years, although various economic compensation modes have been implemented by the Chinese government, such modes are still experimental and exploratory. Thus, designing and implementing a national economic compensation mode is urgent to effectively protect the quantity and quality of cultivated land. This study focuses on the mode of cultivated land protection fund (CLPF) in Chengdu, which is the earliest mode of the implementation of economic compensation in China in 2008. First, we analyzed the farmers’ satisfaction with the CLPF through a face-to-face interview with 296 farmers in Chengdu. Then, we used the path analysis method to identify the influencing factors of farmers’ satisfaction from the characteristics of farmers and the policy. Results show that the CLPF was generally supported by farmers. Nevertheless, room for improvement still exists. Particularly, farmers’ satisfaction was low in the design of the government’s supervision management of the CLPF. Farmers’ satisfaction with compensation standard, funding use requirement, and the government’s supervision management were remarkably affected by factors, including farmers’ educational level, cultivated land area, total annual agricultural income, farmers’ knowledge of the CLPF, farmers’ recognition of the value of the CLPF, and farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics. Particularly, the direct influence of farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics was the most important. Finally, we proposed the recommendations for constructing a national economic compensation mode for cultivated land protection. Our results have certain guiding significance for promoting the sustainable development of cultivated land protection policies by means of economic incentives in China and other countries.