Water scarcity in the Twente region: How can we communicate the risk and motivate people to reduce water use?

In the region of Twente, the issue of water scarcity and drought is becoming more and more prevalent in light of changing weather patterns due to climate change and increasing use of water supplies. This raises many questions related to the security of drinking water supplies and how people can change their behaviour to mitigate and adapt to this new reality.

The topic of interest for this project is communicating the urgency of the problem in order to increase people's willingness and agency to respond to this developing crisis. This research is supervised by PCRS teachers and the Climate Centre, in collaboration with Twente Golf, a collaboration of the water authorities (Waterschappen) Vechtstromen en Twente, and Vitens en Grolsch (https://detwentsegolf.nl/).

How do people perceive the risks of water scarcity?

Which factors influence water scarcity risk perception and intention to reduce water use?

How can we increase water scarcity risk perception, agency and reduction of water use?

How can people prepare for emergencies of water becoming (temporarily) unavailable?

Survey research

If you are interested in this topic, please contact Steven Watson via s.j.watson@utwente.nl.

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