Risk Communication of Drinking Water Quality Issues - A Mental Models Approach: How Can the UK Water Industry Fill the Gaps in Knowledge Which Exist Between Experts and Customers? Anne Owen, Postgraduate Researcher, Thames Water, R&T Group, Spencer House, Basingstoke Road, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom, telephone +44 0181 213 8272, fax +44 0181 213 8295, e-mail 101513.2605@compuserve.com; Professor C.R.I. Clayton, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Centre For Environmental Health Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH; Dr. C. Fife-Schaw, Dept. of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH; and Professor J. Colbourne, Consultant, Thames Water, Walton AWTW, Hurst Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey, KT12 2EG
This research work uses a mental model approach (Bostrom et al. 1994) to elicit and characterise the differences in knowledge between experts in Thames Water and customers. The methodology used is an expert mental model of drinking water built using an influence-directed network. Qualitative studies were conducted using a specially designed drinking water quality interview protocol with two groups of customers (complainers and noncomplainers) following a change made to their water supply. Results from this qualitative work revealed significant gaps in knowledge between experts in the company and customers affected by the change. The gaps (e.g. misconceptions, beliefs and valuations) are clearly related to a failure by the company to communicate specific information to its customers, the influence of regional media reporting and the resultant impact upon customer contacts into the company over a 26 week period.
The findings of the qualitative study were used to develop a customer perception questionnaire for use in a large-scale quantitative survey conducted during 1998. Pilot study results from this quantitative survey provides evidence to support mental modelling as a potentially influential research tool for eliciting, characterising and measuring public perceptions about drinking water quality issues.
Quantifying key gaps and misconceptions in knowledge held by different social groups will provide Thames Water, and water industry regulators, with a tool for designing future risk communications with customers, and for public consultation over controversial issues, such as, fluoridation of water supplies.
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