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Chapter Nine Overview and Conclusions
9.1 This review has explored evidence of public attitudes, perceptions and values in relation to the water environment which may be relevant in terms of developing thinking about how the WFD is implemented. The review has shown that there is a multi-disciplinary research base, drawing on a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative methods. Some general conclusions have been grouped under five headings: (1) extent of current evidence; (2) public values and perceptions; (3) priorities; (4) lessons for Scotland; and (5) gaps in the knowledge-base.
Extent of current evidence
9.2 The scarce research on perceptions of the water environment amongst the general public in Scotland and the UK has been mostly concerned with perceptions of water quality. Most of the international academic literature that was reviewed investigates environmental attitudes on a case-study, site-specific level and the focus of these usually came under the themes of recreation, water resources or ecology.
9.3 Policy formation and decision-making on the water environment have tended to reflect ecological and economic priorities rather than social values and perceptions, and where these have been considered it has usually been concerned with people's views of water quality. Interesting material from Germany and New Zealand seemed to have the most potential relevance for Scottish policy engagement with public perceptions of the water environment.
Public values and perceptions
9.4 People engage with the water environment positively and negatively, with the evidence suggesting that water adds a positive economic value to the environment and vegetation increases the value that people place on the water environment. The public also value the water environment highly for outdoor recreation, with values varying by the recreation group to which people belong. The water environment, therefore, possesses diverse values, both human and natural, both use and non-use - "even unspectacular rivers provide a source of enjoyment and tranquillity for many who use only the riverbanks, view the river from afar, or who only know that it is there and available" (Asakawa et al 2004, 168).
9.5 Plentiful evidence also illustrates how the views and values of different groups of people vary in significant ways. Factors influencing shared and divergent perceptions include: socio-economic and demographic differences (gender, age, education, residence, religion, social class, income and employment); geographical variables (for example, respondent's country of origin or location of the waterbody); cultural context; prior knowledge of an environment; user group; and the type of water environment. Variation in values and perceptions is, therefore, largely influenced by location and by the characteristics of respondents. (However, it should also be borne in mind that variations in values and perceptions may be partly influenced by factors inherent in the methodological approach which has been adopted in a study.)
Priorities
9.6 Public priorities for the water environment emerging in the literature are water quality, water quantity and safety, recreation and tourism, aesthetics and landscape, nature, resource management and education. Perceptions of, and attitudes to, water quality is the most important environmental priority in relation to other water environmental concerns, including quantity and supply. This general observation based on the findings of this review is supported by the results of the public attitudes survey undertaken in Scotland in April and May 2006 (Scottish Executive, 2006). 11
9.7 The issue of conflict emerged as important within different themes of the review. The importance of education, information-provision and communication was clearly apparent as these are means by which the values that different groups of people assign to the water environment may be influenced and tools in the prevention, mitigation and resolution of conflict.
9.8 There is a need to ensure that the public are well informed for the purposes of fostering effective participation and to avert and address conflict. This review of literature suggests that the public consider themselves to be informed with reference to water quality, but that further education and increased awareness is required in relation to water quantity, supporting the findings of the Executive's recent survey.
Lessons for WFD implementation in Scotland
9.9 A plethora of literature has been identified during the course of this review. Although there are limitations to this evidence-base, mainly as a consequence of the cultural specificity of research and the English-language focus, a number of important lessons for WFD implementation in Scotland can be identified. Central to WFD is the issue of engagement and public participation, with WFD demanding a high degree of public involvement, placing the people of Scotland at the heart of managing the water environment. From this respect, evidence generated in Australia and New Zealand offers a number of useful perspectives, indicating, for example, that education and awareness-raising should be an integral element of river basin management. The projects undertaken by the Australian CSIRO Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre, which incorporates social values into environmental policy, is particularly useful, eliciting the values of the public and developing river basin catchment models to resolve conflicts over the water environment. Here 'learning through activity' was a successful mechanism of public engagement, echoing, for example, the findings of the Forth Estuary coastal litter campaign (Storrier and McGlashan, 2006). In New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment's Water Allocation Programme encourages sustainable development of water resources by removing unnecessary constraints to water availability and promoting efficiency of water use. The New Zealand Government has also identified all water bodies of national importance for a range of values, including natural heritage, recreation, cultural and historical heritage, irrigation, energy, industry and domestic use and tourism. More specifically, public awareness campaigns, such as that conducted by the New Zealand Department of Conservation ( DOC) during 2004-2005, can educate the public on the importance of the water and marine environment. Evidence from this suggests that with increased public awareness and education, conflicts can be averted.
9.10 The resource management literature, especially that concerned with participation and engagement, is, therefore, pertinent to Scottish implementation of the WFD. As Olsson et al (2004) note, public attitudes and participation must be integrated into resource management. A particularly useful way of achieving this is seen in Eddy et al's (2002) study of integrated resource management in Canada's northern marine environment. Here the coastal community was involved from the first stage of the catchment management plan and public attitudes to resource management of water environments were altered as communication and information availability increased. Similarly, the advantages of education, information provision, communication and public participation are outlined in Myatt et al's (2003) study of public perceptions and attitudes towards a coastal realignment scheme in Norfolk. They conclude that access to information is an integral component in the process of public understanding. Another relevant study is provided by Sidaway (2005), where he deliberates the importance of encouraging stakeholder dialogue and engaging in workshops and consultations, all of which should be adopted to resolve conflicts over the water environment.
Gaps in the literature and opportunities for further research
9.11 Given how values and perceptions differ on cultural, geographical and demographic grounds, it is inevitable that literature and data from elsewhere are not often immediately applicable or comparable to Scotland and Scottish WFD implementation. Therefore, further understanding (qualitative research) and data (quantitative research) is required in a Scottish context, providing, for example, baselines from which to measure future trends as a consequence of the WFD.
9.12 In comparison with the evidence that exists elsewhere, particular gaps in the evidence-base for Scotland are: (1) public attitudes and perceptions in relation to water quantity; (2) recreational and tourist values of water environments; (3) the resource manager's perspective on the water environment; and (4) the importance that the public attach to nature within water environments. Further evidence would also be valuable on the attitudes and priorities of different, and indeed under-represented, groups in Scotland, encouraging democratic engagement, which would require primary data collection. There are a number of key topics identified in this review which could be investigated in more depth in the Scottish context through quantitative or qualitative research.
9.13 Encouragingly, there are a number of studies which are addressing these evidence-needs. The recent survey of public views of the water environment (Scottish Executive 2006) and further in-depth, qualitative research on behalf of the Executive, which is currently underway to further explore public opinions and priorities, are examples of this. Relevant work has also been undertaken by the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, both in terms of investigation public attitudes to water and in relation to broader issues around democratic participation and engagement in environmental management and decision-making. Meanwhile, SNIFFER (the Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research) has an ongoing programme of research concerned with water which will yield relevant data, although most of their work is concerned with enhancing the scientific evidence-base, and SEPA, as a responsible authority, conducts consultation on specific aspects of WFD.
9.14 In tandem with the need for rich and varied explorations of people's values towards the water environment, including monitoring of WFD implementation, the literature reviewed here also points to the importance of providing the public with reliable and accessible information and appropriate opportunities for involvement in order to meet the open, participatory principles of the Directive which require public trust and engagement in their water environment and well informed participants in decision-making and management processes.
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