PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF WATER-QUALITY RISKS - INFLUENCING FACTORS AND ENHANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Public perceptions of the human health risks associated with water qua lity deterioration have been increasing in recent years, and a better understanding of the determinants of such perceptions and the communic ation of these perceptions to the policy community will facilitate wat er quality management. The objective of this study was to conduct a st ate-of-the-art literature review on factors affecting public perceptio n of risk and levels of acceptable risk in relation to water quality, and to delineate research opportunities for such perceptions in relati on to their usage in water quality management. Extensive literature se arches yielded approximately 150 papers or other published items relat ed to water quality risk concerns. Although there have been few compre hensive studies of factors that influence water quality risk perceptio n and the delineation of acceptable risk, many individual and combinat ions of factors have been identified as affecting perceptions held by different publics. Examples of such factors include whether or not pol lution is visible, personal usage of the water resource, historical ch anges from emphases on bacteriological quality to the occurrence of to xic chemicals, education level, age, proximity to the problem, familia rity with the contaminant and source, trust in local public officials, involvement in decision processes, and poor risk communication effort s. Outrage factors such as whether the risk is voluntary or involuntar y, familiar or unfamiliar, controlled by self or controlled by others, memorable or not memorable, dreaded or not dreaded, or natural or unn atural, can also influence risk perception. Complications associated w ith identifying influencing factors include the facts that: 1) the wat er environment is technically and scientifically complicated due to hy drodynamic considerations, chemical processes, and the kinetics of bac teriological decomposition; 2) there are many uncertainties associated with risk identification and evaluation; 3) effective communication o f risk information to different publics is difficult; and 4) conflicts may arise due to different perceptions of water risk between policy m akers, scientific experts, public interest groups, the media, and indi viduals within the general public. A fundamental research need in rela tion to water quality and risk perception is for a basic conceptual mo del which can be utilized and tested in terms of the factors which inf luence perceptions of water quality risks held by different publics. T he conceptual model should incorporate both individual perception of r isks as well as group perception of risks. Acceptable risk needs to be systematically defined and various causative factors or issues should be delineated. Very little information exists on how public perceptio ns of water quality risks are actually used by policy makers in planni ng and implementing water quality management programs. Research is als o needed on institutional and interdisciplinary barriers to the develo pment and transmission of information needed by policy makers and the general public in their formation of risk perceptions. Consideration s hould also be given to the degree that narrow disciplinary perspective s influence scientific and technical information communicated to polic y makers and the general public.