What Determines Behaviours Towards Water Resources Management in a Rural Context? Results of a Quantitative Study

Recent environmental policies introduced to safeguard the quality of water resources have focussed on encouraging pro-environmental behaviours (PEB). This has resulted in a considerable volume of research output that seeks to investigate the determinants of PEB in the context of water resources mana...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Resources (Basel) 2019-06, Vol.8 (2), p.109
Main Authors: Okumah, Murat, Yeboah, Ata Senior, Nkiaka, Elias, Azerigyik, Richard Apatewen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
Context
Developing countries
environmental attitudes
Environmental behavior
Environmental policy
Ghana
Land use planning
LDCs
Multivariate statistical analysis
Policies
pro-environmental behaviour
Quantitative research
river
Rural areas
Rural environments
Statistical methods
Structural equation modeling
structural equation modelling
Water pollution
Water quality
Water resources
Water resources management
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent environmental policies introduced to safeguard the quality of water resources have focussed on encouraging pro-environmental behaviours (PEB). This has resulted in a considerable volume of research output that seeks to investigate the determinants of PEB in the context of water resources management. However, there is a paucity of literature exploring the topic within the developing country context, though evidence suggests that these regions record the highest rates of water resource pollution. This limits our understanding of the determinants of PEB and thus constrains our ability to develop and implement effective policies to encourage uptake of PEB. Following this, we apply the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore the determinants of PEB, using structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from rural Ghana. The evidence supports the hypothesis that attitudes and perceived behavioural control affects intentions, and this translates into pro-environmental behaviour. Results further indicate that attitude and perceived behavioural control have a strong explanatory power in people’s intentions, and intentions are influential drivers of pro-environmental behaviour. An explicit recognition of the role of situational factors could offer a profound understanding of the determinants of behaviours that promote water resources management and support the development and implementation of policies aimed at safeguarding the quality of water resources.
ISSN:2079-9276
2079-9276
DOI:10.3390/resources8020109