Factors Affecting Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitudes Regarding North Carolina Coastal Reserve Management

Abstract

we collected data in face-to-face interviews on four sites in the North Carolina Research Reserve system. We subsequently conducted analyses on the effects of education, income, length of visitation, and frequency of visitation on visitor knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes regarding management. Visitors to the sites were well-educated, listed incomes above the state median, and were racially homogeneous. At the overall level, the majority (63%) knew who owned the sites, but only 43% correctly identified the managing agency. The majority also believed that overall conditions at the sites were stable, although those that had been visiting longer perceived conditions as deteriorating. Education was positively correlated with knowledge of ownership and management, and with support for additional rules and enforcement. Neither income, nor frequency of visitation showed any correlation with any of the dependent variables at the overall level. Some site-specific findings differed from the overall findings and varied from site to site. These differences were addressed individually.

Coastal residents' literacy about seawater desalination and its impacts on marine ecosystems in California

“…1 mean value of self-assessed knowledge measured on 5-point scale from 0 = do not know to 4 = very high level of knowledge 2 Mean percentage of correct answers for10 knowledge questions about brine 3 Mean percentage of correct answer to 1 question about behavior of salty water in ocean ** Spearman"s rho significance p <0.01 (2-tailed) Table 5 Non-parametric correlation coefficients among 22 independent and 3 knowledge variables Awareness 1 Self-assessed knowledge 2 Factual knowledge (# of correct answers) Socio-demographics Gender .195 ** 1 = combined awareness of plant and brine discharge 2 = self-assessed knowledge of impact on ocean and brine discharge Cox&Snell R 2 = 0.077, NagelkerkeR 2 = 0.132…”

“…Public knowledge about ocean issues and management is typically low, despite the high percentage of the human population that lives in coastal areas [e.g., 1,2,3]. Because direct experiences of marine environments often require specialized training (e.g., scuba diving, boating, fishing etc.)…”