What factors affect the water saving behaviors of farmers in the Loess Hilly Region of China?

Analytic and heuristic process for prudent antimicrobial use in animals: What are triggers and how do they work?

The over and misuse of antimicrobials in animal agriculture causes a prevailing crisis for humans, animals, and the environment. From the One Health approach perspective, the formation process of adopting prudent antimicrobial use (AMU), once established, can be used to mitigate this crisis. The study aimed to determine the analytic-based and heuristic-based process that evoked prudent AMU among animal farmers by synthesis of stimulus-organism-response framework and dual-system theory and to explore gender differences on risk-benefit trade-offs. A structural equation model was employed to test the proposed hypotheses with field survey data from 1100 small-scale farmers. The results reveal that for the analytic-based process, social influence, antimicrobial-related threats, and self-efficacy are all salient stimuli having indirect effects on intention via the two organisms of perceived risks and perceived benefits. For heuristic-based process, farmers' altruistic value orientations are positively associated with intention. An interesting fact is that threat awareness has two opposite effects on intention, namely, the suppression effect and the enhancement effect. Moreover, the negative effect of perceived risks on intention is greater among female farmers, compared to male counterparts. These findings provide valuable insights for the forming of theory-based intervention strategies to perfect China's national action plan.

An exploration of nudging towards transformative environmental behaviour changes prior to a values-crystallization event

Reduction of environmental problems needs durable transformative changes in behaviour, and developments in Transformative Learning are increasingly called for, to achieve them. Only recently has a method been demonstrated to routinely produce transformations in behaviour - a significant step forward - but they are not focused in specific thematic directions, and rarely environmental, which leaves the research need still unanswered. Here, we present an exploration of the use of that method (which involved values-crystallization of groups) with prior Nudging, with the aim of increasing the environmentally-themed transformed behaviours. The Nudging used was one open question about the environment in participants' current roles, plus a short questionnaire about current environmental behaviours, which also provided baseline data. Comparison with 3-4-days post-event interviews revealed most of the reported transformative behaviours were indeed environmental, such as waste sorting, water and electricity conservation, found retained via further 14-56-days post-event interviews. These results, from two separate groups of participants, suggest that the Nudging_Plus_Values-crystallization approach may be useful for pro-environmental practitioners in sustainability. Furthermore, the process involved of influencing choice spaces via Nudging, in values-crystallization events, deserves further studies to confirm causation and understand linkages between Nudging, reflection, values-crystallization, and Transformative Learning because it is likely that the process can be easily transferred to many different types of behaviour change programs, which will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and practitioners.

Study of Township Construction Land Carrying Capacity and Spatial Pattern Matching in Loess Plateau Hilly and Gully Region: A Case of Xifeng in China

With the acceleration of urbanization, the construction land scale of urban and rural areas is constantly expanding, which leads to contradiction and conflict between territorial development and ecological protection becoming more and more serious. Therefore, as an important unit of county (district), and even urban and rural, development, the study on land resource carrying capacity and the rationality of the development can provide some basis for developing the optimal strategies of differential territorial space. Taking Xifeng, Gansu Province, China as the research area, this study constructs the evaluation index system of township construction land carrying capacity from the three dimensions of ecological protection, natural environment, and social economy. It evaluates the suitability of township construction land by the means of a comprehensive scoring method and discusses the carrying capacity and spatial pattern matching of township construction land based on the suitability evaluation results. The results showed that: (1) the spatial difference of suitability of construction land is obvious, which is higher in the city center than in the surrounding areas; (2) the comprehensive carrying capacity of township construction land is 52.62%, and different townships range from 3.78% to 13.15%. It is different between towns; (3) on the whole, the condition of township construction land is well-developed, and the main distribution forms are flaky, banded, and dotted. (4) There is a positive correlation between spatial matching and carrying capacity. The carrying capacity should be considered in regional development to avoid overdevelopment. It can provide a basis for optimizing the territorial spatial layout, strengthening the coordinated development among townships, and improving the comprehensive township carrying capacity in the Loess Plateau hilly and gully region.

From value perception to behavioural intention: Study of Chinese smallholders' pro-environmental agricultural practices

Internal motivation is a crucial factor determining an individual's behaviour, particularly relevant to smallholders' adoption of pro-environmental agricultural practices. However, there has been limited evidence about smallholders' behavioural intention formation, specifically focusing on pro-environmental agricultural practices. Using large-scale, in-depth interview data from a sample of 549 rural farmers in Shandong province in China, we developed an integrated socio-psychological model, which integrated the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) into a coherent framework and further tested by using the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The results show that the TPB and the VBN models can be well-integrated to examine smallholder's pro-environmental behaviours. The integrated model indicates that smallholders' value perception of environment plays a fundamental role in forming their behavioural intention. Smallholders' subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (as the core elements in the TPB theory), and their ascribed responsibility (as a core element in the VBN theory) play a significant mediation role in shaping their behavioural intention. This result indicates that to foster smallholders' internal motivation in adopting pro-environmental practices, it is crucial to understand the value perception among farmers, and policymakers should particularly take measures to foster farmers' egoistic values, altruistic values and their biospheric values towards the environment. Only if these proper values are formed, a strong behavioural intention can be formed.

Climatic Hazards and the Associated Impacts on Households’ Willingness to Adopt Water-Saving Measures: Evidence from Mexico

Numerous regions across the globe are facing water shortage challenges, and domestic water demands are predicted to grow vastly by 2050. In this regard, household water-saving measures are critical to adapt to future risks. Few studies have evaluated the association between climate change-related threats and their impacts on water-saving activities and intentions. However, a limitation in this line of research is the assumption that only the hazards that directly affect water shortages, such as drought, can influence water conservation behaviors. Our study takes a step forward to examine the possible association between other types of extreme climate events (in addition to drought) and household water-saving behavioral willingness. Mexico is used as a case study. The information from the most recent versions of two Mexican national surveys is employed. The potential roles of three demographic characteristics (age, gender, and education) are also investigated. We found that recent experience of harsh climatic events positively affects willingness to adopt water-saving measures (although this is a small effect). The results validate the significance of experiential knowledge as a driver to increase the willingness to act responsibly regarding water challenges. The lessons we derive are of significance for Mexico and other settings facing water crises and natural hazards.

Are you a water saver? Discovering people's water-saving intention by extending the theory of planned behavior

Saving water is a common responsibility of all humanity, which is essential for achieving sustainable use of global water resources. The aim of this study is to discover the determinants of an individual's intention to save water. Based on the theory of planned behavior, a novel comprehensive framework has been developed by extending environmental concern, perceived risk, and information publicity. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to perform an empirical analysis with data from questionnaire of 265 residents in Jinan, the famous Chinese "Spring City". The findings indicate that residents have a strong environmental concern and water-saving intention with mean values of 6.78 and 6.67, respectively. Attitude and information publicity are the most important antecedents of water-saving intention, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Environmental concern and perceived risk indirectly affect the intention to save water through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The role of environmental concern is more important than the role of perceived risk. Interestingly, a high level of information publicity may strengthen the impact of attitude on water-saving intention but weaken the impact of perceived behavioral control. This study strongly supplements current knowledge on water-saving behavior. Moreover, these findings provide insights for policymakers to motivate people to save water.

What Drives Farmers to Participate in Rural Environmental Governance? Evidence from Villages in Sandu Town, Eastern China

Understanding farmers’ participation is crucial for achieving an effective impact on rural living environmental governance and promoting sustainable development. Taking Sandu Town in eastern China as a case study, in-depth semi-structured interviews with farmers, village cadres, and town managers were conducted in this study. Then, a conceptual framework incorporating comprehensive factors is presented to analyze the driving factors and mechanisms of farmer participation in rural domestic waste management. The results show that farmers’ participation in pro-environmental actions is a response to an integrated network of both internal and external factors. Life inertia, loss of personal interests, and objective conditions are the barriers to farmers deciding to participate. Meanwhile, environmental awareness can increase farmers’ internal motivations, and factors such as household benefits, social-cultural influences, and appraisal systems, including household possession protection, very low economic costs, better life experiences, demonstrations from society, “following the crowd”, peer pressure, and reward and criticism measures, are the external forces that mobilize farmers to participate in rural environmental governance. Policy recommendations are proposed based on the findings.

Sustainable conjunctive water management model for alleviating water shortage

Water shortage poses a great challenge to the health of population and environment and impedes socio-economic development. Therefore, a comprehensive model is necessary to promote the adaptation of the whole socio-economic system to limited water resources. To achieve it, a sustainable conjunctive water management model (SCWM) was developed. In SCWM, direct (physical) and indirect (virtual or embodied) water consumptions of multiple water resources in future scenarios are projected, and the sustainable performances of various water-saving scenarios are quantified from the perspectives of water resources, economy, and ecosystem under water capping policy. A case study of Shaanxi, a typical water shortage province in central-eastern China, is conducted aimed at conquering the irrational use of surface- and ground-water subjected to the constraint of future total water use quota. Key findings contain optimal possibility of adapting water shortage via saving water through increasing industrial water efficiency to 11.12 m³/10,000 CNY and reducing 40% of agricultural final demand (Summation of direct and indirect water savings of the two scenarios are 41.57 × 10⁸ m³ and 20.27 × 10⁸ m³, respectively.) and nonsynergistic effects of simultaneous decreasing final demand of multiple sectors on water consumption intensity (WCI) of total (all kinds of water) water, surface- and ground-water. To devise effective policies for conjunctive management of surface- and ground-water, positive utility, economic structure and water productivity should be heeded, and proposals emphasize trade-offs between surface water saving and groundwater conservation, water metabolic and socio-economic systems sustainability and negative interaction of multiple sectors on economy and WCI should be framed. The innovation of this study is the development of SCWM, which can provide sustainable solution for future multiple-source water saving management measures thoroughly concerning direct and indirect water and sectorial interactions. The model not only brings insights to Shaanxi's water management but also can be used for other similar arid area.

Purchase intention toward sustainable masks after COVID-19: the moderating role of health concern

This study aimed to investigate consumers’ intentions to purchase sustainable masks to reduce the environmental pollution caused by disposable masks in the context of COVID-19. A research model was derived based on the Value-Belief-Norm theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the moderating role of health concerns and environmental knowledge due to the COVID-19 pandemic were examined. Through a Korean online survey company, we collected data on sustainable masks from respondents aged from their 20 s to 50 s, living in the Korea, and a structural equation analysis was performed on the 337 valid samples. Environmental concerns and beliefs were found to have a positive impact on the purchase intention on sustainable masks. Although environmental knowledge played the role of a moderator, we found that the higher the health concern, the stronger the purchase intention. Based on these results, it is possible to derive a strategy to increase the purchase of sustainable masks and reduce the environmental pollution caused by disposable masks. A sales strategy should be implemented for groups with high health concern. In addition, since the subjective norm increases the purchase intention for sustainable masks, advertising that stimulates them will help reduce environmental pollution caused by disposal masks. In the future, it will be possible to help reduce environmental pollution not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also during other emerging pandemics.