The unpredictability of community priorities in planning for water-scarce futures in the Goulburn-Broken River Basin

Abstract

Community engagement is critical for water management under climate change. There is limited clarity about what types of information should be collected to support planning for water-scarce futures. Current engagement efforts typically focus on community values. However, community priorities, which reflect the trade-offs between values, may be more relevant. Since priorities are context-dependant, it is important to understand if and how they shift as water becomes scarcer. To explore this, we interviewed community members in the Goulburn Catchment, Australia. We compared their priorities for allocating water in the river under current water availability to their priorities under a Future sc..