Wading through the data: exploring relationships between human perceptions and biophysical water quality in coastal waters
Citation:
Mulvaney, K., M. Mazzotta, N. Merrill, AND J. Twichell. Wading through the data: exploring relationships between human perceptions and biophysical water quality in coastal waters. International Symposium on Society and Resource Management (ISSRM), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, June 02 - 07, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
There is not much information available about how people perceive water quality and how that perception relates to other scientific measurements of water pollution. We developed a scale to measure people's water quality perceptions and compared the responses from a survey using that scale to other types of water pollution data.
Description:
Water quality perceptions influence people’s preferences for visiting coastal areas and willingness to participate in activities on or near the water. They also influence people’s social values for a waterbody, sense of place, support for protection of a waterbody, and likelihood of recognizing risks (or lack thereof) presented by water pollution. Currently, there are no consistently-used metrics for measuring water quality perceptions in coastal and estuarine waters. To better understand water quality perceptions, we built a coastal water quality scale based on a literature review and six focus groups to identify qualitative characteristics that influence perceptions of water quality in coastal areas. Participants identified water quality as an important characteristic that influenced their choice of location for coastal activities. The focus groups also revealed that water clarity, debris, prevalence of seaweed, and reputation/history of beach closures contribute to perceptions of water quality. The scale was piloted in a recent survey of coastal recreation in New England (sent to 9000 participants, 17 percent response rate) that also investigated coastal recreation, including specific information about recreation site locations, sense of place, trip characteristics, and demographics. We investigated the relationships between the water quality perception responses and geospatial data for state 303(d) water quality impairments and state beach and shellfish closures data for the participant-identified recreation locations. The results indicate relationships between the water quality perceptions scale and some biophysical measurements such as nutrient criteria and bacterial closures, but with no detectable relationships for other types of water quality impairments.