Using secondary data to analyse socio-economic impacts of water management actions

This paper provides an analysis of the socio-economic impacts of river restoration schemes, and is novel in considering how a wide range of socio-economic variables can be used to understand impacts on the entire resident population within an area. A control-impacted approach was applied to explore differences in socio-economic characteristics of areas within which a restoration scheme had been carried out compared to areas without such a scheme. The results show that significant differences exist between control and impacted areas for a range of socio-economic variables. However, due to constraints in the methods and the data available, there are currently limitations in the extent to which socio-economic impacts of river restoration schemes can be fully explored. Additional datasets that become available in the future may increase the ability to detect associations between improvements in the water environment and socio-economic benefits. However, whilst the secondary data used in this paper are potentially powerful, they should be used alongside other techniques for assessing the impacts of decisions as part of future frameworks to deliver sustainable water management.