UTAH WATER SURVEY: Perceptions and Concerns about Water Issues

Researchers at Utah State University created a short survey instrument to gather information about the views and concerns of Utah residents related to water issues. This survey was designed to give the public a chance to share their perceptions and concerns about water supply, water quality, and other related issues. While finding out what the ‘average citizen’ feels about key water issues was one goal of the project, the most interesting and important results are found in exploring ways in which perspectives about water vary across the population based on where people live and their demographic background (gender, age, education, etc.). This survey helps bring a voice to groups of citizens typically not represented in water policy debates. The findings have been and continue to be shared with water managers and decision makers who are planning for local and state water system sustainability.

This survey effort is also a key outreach and education component of the iUTAH project. High school groups, college and university classes, and others are invited to collaborate with iUTAH faculty to conduct public intercept surveys. Co-collection and analysis of survey data provides a hands-on learning opportunity about the principles of social science research. This effort helps increase awareness about the complexity of water issues in Utah, and the methods through which scientists learn about the public’s thoughts and concerns. Between July 2014 and April 2016, the survey has been implemented with collaborating students and faculty from the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, Weber State University, Salt Lake Community College, Southern Utah University, Dixie State University, and Snow College.

The survey involved using a structured protocol to randomly approach adults entering grocery stores in communities across the state, and inviting them to complete a 3-minute questionnaire about thier perceptions and concerns about water issues in Utah. The survey was self-administered on an iPad tablet and uploaded to a web server using the Qualtrics Offline App.

The project generated responses from over 7,000 adults, with a response rate of just over 42% . Comparisons of the respondents with census data suggest that they are largely representative of the communities where data were collected and of the state's adult population.

The data are anonymous and are available as a public dataset here. The data also served as the basis for the development of an open-source web-based survey data viewer that can be found at: http://data.iutahepscor.org/surveys/ and were also reported in Jones et al. (2016). We encourage users to use the viewer to explore the survey results.

The files below include a document describing in detail the method/protocol used in the study, and copies of field materials we used to implement the project. We also include copies of the full dataset and a codebook in various formats.

犹他州立大学的研究者们编制了一项简短的调查工具，旨在收集犹他州居民关于水问题的观点和担忧信息。该调查旨在为公众提供一个分享其对水资源、水质及其他相关问题的认知和担忧的平台。虽然了解‘普通公民’对关键水问题的看法是本项目的一个目标，但最引人入胜且重要的发现在于探索基于人们的居住地及其人口统计学背景（如性别、年龄、教育程度等）的水问题观点的差异性。此调查有助于为通常在水政策辩论中缺乏代表性的公民群体发声。调查结果已与及持续与负责规划地方和州级水系统可持续性的水管理人员和决策者共享。

此次调查努力也是iUTAH项目的关键推广和教育组成部分。高中团体、大学课程以及其他机构被邀请与iUTAH教师合作，进行公共拦截调查。调查数据的协同收集和分析为学习社会科学研究原理提供了实践学习机会。此努力有助于提高人们对犹他州水问题复杂性的认识，以及科学家了解公众想法和担忧的方法。在2014年7月至2016年4月期间，该调查与犹他大学、犹他河谷大学、韦伯州立大学、盐湖城社区学院、南方犹他大学、狄克西州立大学和斯诺学院的学生和教师合作实施。

调查涉及采用结构化协议随机接触进入全州各社区超市的成年人，并邀请他们完成一份关于他们对犹他州水问题的认知和担忧的3分钟问卷。调查通过iPad平板电脑自助完成，并使用Qualtrics离线应用程序上传至网络服务器。

本项目收集了超过7000名成年人的反馈，响应率略高于42%。与人口普查数据的比较表明，受访者大体上代表了数据收集的社区以及该州成年人口。数据是匿名的，并作为公开数据集在此处提供。数据还作为开发开源的基于网络的调查数据查看器的依据，该查看器可在http://data.iutahepscor.org/surveys/找到，并在Jones等（2016）的研究中被报道。我们鼓励用户使用查看器来探索调查结果。

以下文件包括详细描述研究中使用的方法/协议的文档，以及我们用于实施项目的实地材料副本。我们还包括完整数据集和多种格式的代码簿。