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What’s the Problem? River Management, Education, and Public Beliefs

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Abstract

This paper invokes the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a diagnostic tool to explain an existing public education program’s limited success at improving river water quality in the City of Perth, Western Australia. A reflective, client-driven research approach was used. A facilitated expert workshop defined an environmental problem (excess nutrients leaving gardens and entering waterways) and a desired behavior (residents purchasing environmentally sensitive fertilizer) to address the problem. A TPB-based belief elicitation survey captured respondents’ beliefs regarding the desired behavior. The findings suggest respondents were aware of the links between purchasing environmentally sensitive fertilizer and river water quality. However, this behavior is compromised by the challenges in identifying appropriate products, product quality concerns, and cost. Viewing the content of a public education program through the lens of the TPB reveals insights into how and why the program fell short in achieving one of its key behavioral change goals.

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Acknowledgments

The research project on which this paper is based was funded by the Swan River Trust’s Swan-Canning Research Innovation Program, Perth Western Australia. The authors thank the detailed comments of the reviewers that significantly improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University, Building 607, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Michael Hughes

  2. Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480, Australia

    Betty Weiler

  3. Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Jim Curtis

Authors
  1. Michael Hughes
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  2. Betty Weiler
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  3. Jim Curtis
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Correspondence to Michael Hughes.

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Hughes, M., Weiler, B. & Curtis, J. What’s the Problem? River Management, Education, and Public Beliefs. AMBIO 41, 709–719 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0282-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0282-5

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