Untapped Knowledge about Water Reuse: the Roles of Direct and Indirect Educational Messaging

Jesse L. Barnes (), Anjala S. Krishen () and Han-fen Hu ()
Additional contact information
Jesse L. Barnes: University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Anjala S. Krishen: University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Han-fen Hu: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2021, vol. 35, issue 8, No 19, 2615 pages

Abstract: Abstract Public awareness of water quality concerns has increased since the Flint, MI crisis, but knowledge about water resources management remains low. Consequently, acceptance of potable reuse also remains low. A mixed methods approach is utilized in three phases to determine if direct messaging (information about de facto water reuse aimed at increasing knowledge about wastewater reuse) increases acceptance of planned potable reuse, and if indirect messaging (local public notifications about health-based drinking water violations) affects the effectiveness of the direct messaging. In Phase 1, a spatial analysis was conducted to validate the use of local water quality violations as an indirect message. In Phase 2, a within-subjects comparison was employed to test whether consumers change their potable reuse perceptions, intentions, and attitudes after reading a knowledge-based message regarding water reuse. In Phase 3, the effect of indirect messaging, as well as the interaction of direct and indirect messaging were further analyzed. Phase 1 results match previous findings that suggest that drinking water violations tend to occur and reoccur in spatially specific patterns. Phase 2 confirms the utility of direct messaging to improve potable reuse acceptance. Phase 3 shows that indirect messaging interacts with consumers’ education level and actual knowledge to impact potable reuse acceptance.

Keywords: Potable reuse; de facto reuse; Actual knowledge; Education level; Drinking water; Violations; Messaging; Consumer behavior; Wwater reuse intention; Perceived price; SDWIS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-021-02853-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:35:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1007_s11269-021-02853-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-021-02853-z

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().