Estimating Preferences for Water Quality Improvements using a Citizens' Jury and Choice Modelling: A Case Study on the Bremer River Catchment, South East Queensland

Abstract

This paper describes a study undertaken on the Bremer River catchment in south east Queensland. The study informed members of the community about water quality issues in the catchment through a citizens' jury and then solicited their opinion about whether more resources should be devoted towards improving water quality and how much they thought the community should pay. A choice modelling survey was conducted prior to and at the conclusion of the citizens' jury. The jury accepted that more resources should be devoted to improving water quality in the catchment, making a number of pertinent recommendations about how and where additional resources should be directed. In addition, the jury indicated that, in terms of willingness to pay, riparian vegetation was an important ecosystem attribute. Although the preliminary and final models derived for the choice modelling exercise indicate that the models were not equivalent, there was no statistical difference in the implicit prices between the two models. Nevertheless, the confidence interval of the implicit prices narrowed following the provision of information in the citizens' jury and there was an improvement in the statistical reliability of the model.