9.2.3 Information on community views

The risk assessment considered a variety of sources of information on community perceptions on the threats to the Great Barrier Reef and to the Catchment waterways (Table 9.1). These sources generally provided information at different scales and from different parts of the Australian community. The method of eliciting a ranking of threats differs across sources and within them.

Community views helped inform the risk assessment

Table 9.1
Characteristics of the sources used to inform Section 9.3.1

For some sources, a list of potential threats was presented, and respondents used either a 5- or 7-point scale to indicate how serious they think the threat is (for example, on a spectrum from 1 of ‘not a threat at all’ to either 5 or 7 ‘an extremely serious threat’). One source used this method and then asked the same respondents to list, in free text mode, what they thought were the top three threats to the Reef. This method returned different results from the same group of respondents than when presented with a list of identified threats. Therefore, while some generalisations can be made from these sources, the methodology affects the results. 1075, 1120, 1159, 2152

 

A table that shows the characteristics of the sources used to inform Section 9.3.1 - different types of community surveys
  • 1075. Hobman, E. V., Mankad, A., Pert, P. L., van Putten, I., Fleming-Muñoz, D., Curnock, M. 2022, Monitoring social and economic indicators among residents of the Great Barrier Reef region in 2021: a report from the Social and Economic Long-term Monitoring Program (SELTMP) for the Great Barrier Reef, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia.
  • 1120. The Reef 2050 Traditional Owner Steering Group 2022, Reef 2050 Traditional Owner Implementation Plan, Queensland Government, Brisbane.
  • 1159. Curnock, M.I., Pert, P.L., Maharjan, D., Gordon, B. and Kaniewska, P. 2022, Design and implementation of social surveys for Regional Report Cards in the Great Barrier Reef catchment., CSIRO Land and Water, Townsville.
  • 2152. Taylor, B., Vella, K., Maclean, K., Newlands, M., Ritchie, B., et al. 2019, Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program: stakeholder, Traditional Owner and community engagement assessment. a report provided to the Australian Government by the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville.