Talking About Water: Vocabulary and Images that Support Informed Decisions about Water Recycling and Desalination

One of the significant benefits of developing and agreeing on appropriate terminology is that the industry will be in a much stronger position to communicate effectively with the public and the media. The need is to define the terms of the alternative water sources debate. The standard lexicon will help to minimize confusion between different types of reuse which will help to define acceptable criteria, including scientific, economic, and technological consideration, for a variety of applications and end uses of recycled water. It will also help to put into perspective the net environmental benefits and drawbacks of water reuse and desalination. The project investigates how the images and words used to communicate with the public can affect their acceptance of water reclamation and desalination projects.

Originally funded as WERF project Reuse-07-03.