Combining Water Resources, Socioenvironmental, and Psychological Factors in Assessing Willingness to Conserve Groundwater in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Combining Water Resources, Socioenvironmental, and Psychological Factors in Assessing Willingness to Conserve Groundwater in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Klessens, Tycho M.A. (Student TU Delft)
Daniel, D. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Universitas Gadjah Mada)
Jiang, Yong (IHE Delft Institute for Water Education)
van Breukelen, B.M. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
Scholten, L. (TU Delft Policy Analysis)
Pande, S. (TU Delft Water Resources)

2022

Freshwater resources in coastal areas are under intense pressure from excessive groundwater extraction, which amplifies saltwater intrusion (SWI) into coastal freshwater aquifers, such as in the Mekong Delta. Studies that combine socioenvironmental data and households' psychological factors next to salinity measurement data to design groundwater conservation strategies are rare. In this study, these aspects are combined to explore their influence on the public willingness to conserve groundwater using a Bayesian belief network model. We analyzed 313 household survey data spread over three districts in the coastal province of Tra Vinh, located in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The level of salinity is significantly correlated with the willingness to conserve groundwater. The top three socioenvironmental characteristics that influence willingness are the level of salinity, type of employment - i.e., being a farmer - and frequency of being exposed to groundwater or SWI promotional activities. Social norm, i.e., perceived social pressure, is the most influential psychological factor that determines willingness. This study reveals an urgency for the local government to intervene and create social pressure regarding the issue.

Bayesian belief networks
Behavioral model
Groundwater conservation
Mekong Delta
Saltwater intrusion (SWI)

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:18331fc9-2037-4aae-a945-df975468b4cd

https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001516

2022-06-23

0733-9496

Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 148 (3)

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 Tycho M.A. Klessens, D. Daniel, Yong Jiang, B.M. van Breukelen, L. Scholten, S. Pande