Public Water Policy Knowledge and Policy Preferences in the American West

Erika Allen Wolters, Brent S. Steel, Muhammed Usman Amin Siddiqi and Melissa Symmes
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Erika Allen Wolters: School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, 300 Bexell Hall, Corvallis 97331, OR, USA
Brent S. Steel: School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, 300 Bexell Hall, Corvallis 97331, OR, USA
Muhammed Usman Amin Siddiqi: School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, 300 Bexell Hall, Corvallis 97331, OR, USA
Melissa Symmes: School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, 300 Bexell Hall, Corvallis 97331, OR, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: The Western United States has made significant contributions to agricultural products both domestically and internationally. As the Western U.S. continues to grapple with water scarcity and extended periods of drought, evidence of misalignment between crop production and the volume of water necessary to maintain abundant food yields is becoming more pronounced. There are several policy nudges and mitigation strategies that can be employed to bring water availability and crop selection into alignment. Whether there is public support for these policies, or knowledge of how policies could impact water use in agriculture, it is important to understand what those preferences are and how people weigh tradeoffs between developing agricultural and water use. Using random household surveys of residents in the western U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, this study explores public water knowledge, the correlates of public water knowledge, and the impact knowledge has on preferred water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, climate change belief, and political ideology. Findings show that knowledge does have an independent impact on preferred approaches to water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, belief in climate change, and political ideology. Respondents who are knowledgeable about water recycling for food and water use for agriculture were significantly more supportive of water conservation policy approaches and less supportive of water supply-side approaches.

Keywords: environmental values; public agriculture knowledge; public water knowledge; water policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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