Transition to a water-cycle city: sociodemographic influences on Australian urban water practitioners' risk perceptions towards alternative water systems

Abstract

Transition to a sustainable water future such as the water-cycle city will necessitate shared, diversified risk management, which acknowledges the subjective risk perceptions of all stakeholders, including water practitioners. Such risk perceptions might vary with personal and professional characteristics. This study explores the influence of these characteristics on Australian urban water practitioners' risk perceptions of four alternative water systems, varying in scale of operation and water source, i.e. seawater desalination, indirect potable reuse, sewer mining and stormwater harvesting systems. Analysis of sociodemographic and risk perception data (N = 620) collected from a national online survey revealed that risk perceptions can vary with age or number of years' experience, educational qualification, stakeholder group and area of work within the water sector, reflecting different communities of practice. To facilitate adoption of a suite of sustainable urban water systems, these different risk perceptions must be identified, acknowledged and managed. Targeted social learning through experimentation is a useful approach to achieve this.