Ooi, Daniel, Fisher, Adrian, Cerini, Sheree and Cary, John (2014) Community Understanding of Risk and Safety in Relation to Recycled Water. Project Report. Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence, Brisbane QLD.

Abstract

The Water Reuse and Communities Toolkit has been developed by Victoria University as part of the NDEEP project. The purpose of the resource is to provide guidance and direction to water authorities and water planners in dealing with community attitudes, values, and emotions in regard to recycled water. Recommendations are provided in the executive summary for each module, with a longer elaboration of the evidentiary basis used to inform those conclusions following. These modules are intended to translate insights from the social sciences for a non-specialist audience who are involved in water planning. This intended audience includes; - strategic planners and communications teams in water authorities and water retailers; - water policy specialists and regulators at various levels of government; - water planners in council. Module 2 provides recommendations for incorporating insights from the literature on the psychology of risk and cognitive biases in framing community messages about water recycling. This includes guidance on the following; - developing risk communication messages that are in accord with how the community perceives and misperceives risk; - developing communication strategies that incorporate the cultural framings of risk; - understanding how consumer biases in judgement of water quality operate. The appendix presents the results of framing experiments in the presentation of information about recycled water. This contributes to the evidentiary basis for other NDEEP products in demonstrating the importance of information about both safety assurance, and potential benefits in motivating recycled water.

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