Public knowledge, contaminant concerns, and support for recycled Water in the United States
Public knowledge, contaminant concerns, and support for recycled Water in the United States
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DOI：
10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104419
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发表时间：
2019-11-01
影响因子：
13.2
通讯作者：
Kriner, Douglas L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Glick, David M.;Goldfarb, Jillian L.;Kriner, Douglas L.
在淡水供应日益减少的时代，水循环是满足全球日益增长的水需求的一个潜在解决方案。然而，公众的反对在历史上发挥了关键作用，阻碍了水循环技术在美国的广泛实施。解决公众的关切和克服这种反对意见是至关重要的政治可行性的水循环计划，作为对日益严重的水不安全的反应。这项分析建立在现有的研究，美国人的态度，水循环的三个方面。首先，它探讨了公众对水循环的基本要素的理解，并确定了公众知识的重要差距。其次，它研究了美国人最关心的水循环利用的因素。最后，它调查了知识，具体的问题，以及一系列其他因素，包括美国人的环境优先事项，当地的背景下，党派倾向，和人口特征，结合联合收割机，以影响对再生水的态度。研究结果确定了未来教育推广工作的几个有希望的目标，以建立公众对水回收项目的支持。与政策有关的知识是支持水循环的唯一最重要的预测因素。然而，在消息灵通的少数人和不知情的大多数人之间存在着明显的知识差距。弥补这一差距可以大大增加对水循环的支持。对污水污染的关切对支持水回收利用具有最大的腐蚀性，使其成为进一步外联的主要目标。最后，我们的研究结果表明，未来的教育活动可能会寻求在公众心目中解耦水资源短缺和气候变化，以避免加剧现有的分裂。
Water recycling is one potential solution to meeting the growing global demand for water in an age of dwindling freshwater supplies. However, public opposition has played a key role historically in blunting the broad implementation of water recycling technologies across the United States. Addressing public concerns and overcoming this opposition is critical to the political viability of water recycling programs as a response to growing water insecurity. This analysis builds on existing research on Americans' attitudes toward water recycling in three ways. First, it explores public understanding of basic elements of water recycling and identifies important gaps in public knowledge. Second, it examines the factors that most concern Americans about water recycling. Finally, it investigates how knowledge, specific concerns, and a range of other factors, including Americans' environmental priorities, local context, partisan leanings, and demographic characteristics, combine to influence attitudes toward recycled water. The results identify several promising targets for future educational outreach efforts to build public support for water recycling projects. Policy-relevant knowledge is the single most important predictor of support for water recycling. Yet, there is a stark knowledge gap between a highly informed few and an unaware majority. Bridging this gap could greatly increase support for water recycling. Concerns about sewage contamination were most corrosive to support for water recycling, making them a prime target for further outreach. Finally, our results suggest that future educational campaigns may seek to decouple water scarcity and climate change in the public mind to avoid exacerbating existing cleavages.