Water reallocation policies: public perceptions

Abstract

The need for mechanisms to facilitate a reallocation of water to meet demands from new users and to improve the environmental conditions of many rivers in semiarid regions of the world is increasing. Given past allocation policies, which have vested control of often more than 80% of water resources with irrigators, this will require a reallocation of water out of irrigation. Such reallocation can take place in many ways but is likely to cause pain for irrigators and their communities. This paper investigates the acceptance of water reallocation policies in the context of Alberta, Canada. We explore the influences of demographic and attitudes on the acceptance of water reallocation policies and investigate whether such acceptance differs between urban and rural residents. We find that urban dwellers are more likely to favour government intervention while rural dwellers are more likely to support policies that aim to protect irrigators' water rights. We also find that people, both in urban and rural areas, can be divided into three groups depending on their values and attitudes towards water and the environment: 1) pro-environment; 2) pro-economic and 3) undecided. The urban resident is more likely to belong to the pro-environmental group while rural residents are more likely to belong to the undecided group.

Community perceptions of environmental water: a review

“…This review identified two key findings that strongly influence environmental water across all groups: (1) personal values have tended to determine the acceptance of allocation of environmental water (Syme et al 1999, Parrack 2010, Bjornlund et al 2011, Lane-Miller et al 2013, Mendham & Curtis 2018, Conroy et al 2019, Wineland et al 2021); and (2) willingness to support or give up water allocations has been highly dependent on perceptions of risk to the environment (Graham 2009, Wheeler et al 2014, Mott Lacroix et al 2016).…”

“…Most of these studies separated the respondents into groups or clusters. These were organized either by common values (Parrack 2010, Bjornlund et al 2011, Mendham & Curtis 2018), by activity (Mendham & Curtis 2018), by occupation (Mott Lacroix et al 2016) or by location (Bjornlund et al 2011). These studies show that personal values strongly correlate with policy preferences in environmental water management (Bjornlund et al 2011, 2013a).…”

“…These were organized either by common values (Parrack 2010, Bjornlund et al 2011, Mendham & Curtis 2018), by activity (Mendham & Curtis 2018), by occupation (Mott Lacroix et al 2016) or by location (Bjornlund et al 2011). These studies show that personal values strongly correlate with policy preferences in environmental water management (Bjornlund et al 2011, 2013a). Unsurprisingly, those that held pro-environmental values have the most positive judgements of the benefits of environmental water (Mendham & Curtis 2018).…”