Understanding Mental Models fo Water: Origins, Quality, Contamination, Naturalness, and Risk

In 2004, the WateReuse Foundation sponsored a workshop, "Integrating Human Reactions to Water Reclamation and Reuse into Reuse Project Design." The workshop identified the academic field of psychology, particularly two subfields (social psychology and judgement and decision making), as one that could provide insights to water agencies considering water reclamation and reuse projects. The WateReuse Foundation then developed a 3- to 5-year research road map to shed light on these issues. This report, The Psychology of Water Reclamation and Reuse: Survey Findings and Research Road Map, summarizes the research program and provides early results.

Originally funded as WERF project Reuse-04-08.