Perceived vs measured water supply service: evidence from New Zealand

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to identify correlations between measured water supply performance attributes and consumer perceptions, to provide water suppliers with an improved understanding of the significance of consumers’ perceptions. Over 1900 New Zealand potable water consumers were surveyed and their perceptions were compared with measured aggregated attributes from their water supply system or region using logit and regression models. The analysis identified significant correlations between measured and perceived performance for all attributes. The exception is perceived protection from microorganisms, where other values such as fluoride preferences and Maori values are significant.

KEYWORDS:

• Potable water
• urban water
• perceived risk
• measured attribute
• infrastructure investments
• perceived versus measured performance
• fluoride
• New Zealand

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Henning Bjornlund for his guidance during the data-collection phase.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the University of South Australia, Opus (now WSP New Zealand), and Engineers Canada – TD Meloche Monnex.