LOCAL ATTITUDES TOWARD ALTERNATIVE USES OF A RESERVOIR PROJECT1

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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlates of attitudes toward alternative uses which could have been made of public resources employed to construct a multipurpose reservoir. A sample of 303 adult residents of a rural community impacted by lake construction was asked to evaluate several alternative development options which could have been implemented in lieu of the lake project. The alternative options evaluated were: rural industrialization, keeping land in agriculture and forests, improving public services, building a state or national park, drilling water wells for urban water supply, aid to small business, helping poor people, building several smaller impoundments, and private recreation development. The findings revealed the local people preferred the lake project to every option except keeping the land in agriculture and forest. Even this option was not strongly supported when compared with the lake project. Socio‐demographic, attitude, and cost assessment factors were investigated using a “vested interest” perspective for hypotheses development. These findings demonstrated that costs and benefits were relatively good predictors of attitudes toward alternative development options and were supportive of the theoretical perspective advanced in this paper.

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