Link to Session Platform

Chairs(s):

Kyungsun Lee, Texas A&M University

; Gretchen Sneegas,

Description:

In the face of growing populations and climate change, existing freshwater sources and water infrastructure projects are not adequate to address the challenges of urban water insecurity – particularly adequate water delivery or quality. Desalination and wastewater reuse are seen as major technological interventions to address the increased pressure on freshwater resources from growing urban demands and climate change. However, there are several impediments to their sustainable implementation.
One of the impediments to unconventional water sources is public preferences and perceptions. While the public preferences and perceptions of water reuse were argued in several studies, social perspectives or subjectivities of key stakeholders on desalination and water reuse are not studied much. Understanding stakeholder perspective is critical as key stakeholders are involved in decision making and influence worldview among people.
To fill this gap, this session aims to reveal stakeholder perspectives on sustainability, urban water challenges, desalination, and water reuse. In this session, the first three presentations apply Q-methodology, a well-established method in environmental social science. The purpose of Q-methodology is to empirically determine different social perspectives among key stakeholders based on a highly structured and statically interpretable form. The research employs Q-methodology to examine and compare multiple perceptions and understanding of desalination and water reuse technologies for urban water security in the global water sector, and case sites in Texas, the US, and Israel. The last presentation explores the perspective of water sustainability of corporations, one of the important stakeholders in desalination and water reuse. The research focuses on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports which inform internal and external stakeholders about companies' efforts to achieve economic, environmental, and social sustainability.　
The presentations in this session are a part of a research project entitled “Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security: Desalination and Water Reuse in the 21st Century” supported by Texas A&M University and the Office of the President’s Excellence Grants.

Non-Presenting Participants Agenda