Water scarcity is an escalating global challenge, driven by climate change, population growth, and increasing economic demands. Traditional water management systems, built on linear extraction and disposal models, are proving inadequate in addressing the growing mismatch between supply and demand. Water reuse emerges as a promising solution to close resource loops, reduce dependency on freshwater sources, and enhance water security. However, its adoption remains limited due to economic, technical, and social barriers. This study develops a dynamic partial equilibrium model to assess the economic viability of water reuse policies within the Dutch water sector. By simulating multiple scenarios—including centralized and decentralized reuse strategies—the model quantifies their impact on key economic and environmental indicators. The results indicate that large-scale centralized reuse can significantly reduce consumer costs and compete financially with conventional urban water supplies, but only if substantial infrastructure investments and strong political support are secured. In contrast, decentralized reuse systems, though less cost-effective, offer greater flexibility for industrial and agricultural applications, contributing to system resilience. This study provides a comprehensive framework for policymakers and stakeholders to design economically viable water reuse strategies, aligning with circular economy principles to ensure a sustainable and resilient water future.

Climate change poses significant challenges to urban areas, necessitating innovative solutions to enhance resilience and sustainability. This research explores the adoption of green roofs by housing associations in Amsterdam, a city highly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding, extreme rainfall, droughts and extreme temperatures. Despite the recognized benefits of green roofs, their implementation remains limited. This study aims to identify the factors influencing housing associations' decisions to install green roofs and evaluate the effectiveness of current policy instruments in promoting this practice. While current policy instruments such as subsidies, Weerproof and coercion are in place, the adoption of green roofs has not been done by housing associations. The overarching research question is: “How do policy instruments for the promotion of green roofs influence the behaviour of housing associations in Amsterdam?”
The research focuses on the case study of housing associations in Amsterdam, combining desk research, interviews with policy officers and interviews with major housing associations. The Behaviour Change Wheel, incorporating the COM-B model and Theoretical Domains Framework, serves as the theoretical framework to analyse behavioural drivers and barriers. This comprehensive framework allows for a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding the adoption of sustainable behaviours.
This research makes a contribution to the scientific literature through the use of the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) as a theoretical framework to analyse the adoption of green roofs by housing associations in Amsterdam. The BCW, typically applied within healthcare and behavioural sciences, is used in this study in a novel way within the context of urban sustainability and climate adaptation. By integrating the COM-B model and the Theoretical Domains Framework, this research provides in-depth insights into the behavioural drivers and barriers of housing associations. This methodological innovation broadens the applicability of the BCW and demonstrates its value for organizational behaviour change, specifically focused on sustainability and climate resilience.
Key findings indicate that while there is openness to the idea of green roofs among housing associations, significant barriers persist. These barriers include high installation costs, structural challenges, and a lack of knowledge about green roofs within housing associations. Current policies, such as subsidies and environmental guidelines, have not fully addressed these obstacles, particularly for existing buildings. For example, the subsidy availability has been inconsistent, which undermines the motivation for housing associations to commit to green roof projects. Additionally, while guidelines such as the “Nationale Dakenplan” have been established to promote green roofs, the lack of specific, targeted marketing and communication for housing associations limits their impact.
Reflective motivation is a primary barrier, with housing associations focusing on immediate and pressing needs like improving energy efficiency and addressing poor energy labels. This prioritization often leaves little room for green roofs, which are perceived as less critical. Financial constraints exacerbate this issue, as the high upfront costs of green roofs are often seen as prohibitive without sufficient subsidies or financial incentives. Moreover, housing associations often view the benefits of green roofs—such as increased biodiversity, urban heat island mitigation, and improved stormwater management—as less directly impactful on their primary goal of providing affordable housing.
The research highlights several intervention functions to overcome these barriers. These include enabling policies that integrate green roofs into energy label improvements, regional obligations for green roof implementation, targeted marketing campaigns, a stormwater runoff fee to create a business model for green roofs, and the promotion of comprehensive roof handbooks. Each of these interventions targets specific aspects of the COM-B model—capability, opportunity, and motivation—to encourage housing associations to incorporate green roofs more broadly.
By implementing these improvements, policy instruments can more effectively promote the adoption of green roofs, contributing to a more sustainable urban environment in Amsterdam. Further research should focus on validating these interventions in other cities to confirm their broader applicability. Additionally, evaluating the long-term impacts of these policies will provide insights into their effectiveness and inform future policy development.
Overall, the integration of comprehensive, targeted interventions can drive the widespread adoption of green roofs, enhancing urban resilience and sustainability in the face of climate change. This research provides a foundational understanding of the factors influencing green roof adoption and offers practical recommendations for policy enhancement to achieve a greener, more resilient urban landscape. 

: There has been a growing number of companies that join, commit and set targets to the Science-Based Targets initiative in recent years. This thesis explores how factors which were found in previous studies to influence the companies’ decision to join SBTi or climate action in general, interact dynamically. Using an agent-based model, the companies’ interactions, the SBTi strategies and external factors will be examined in the temporal dimension in order to shed light on what is the projected uptake of SBTi.

The number of cars is increasing in the Netherlands, while the need for space and environmental regulations is increasing as well. The need for new mobility solutions is high. A shared bicycle system could be an indirect solution to these problems, by strengthening the chain journey and getting more people out of their cars. This research uses a mixed-method approach to find the user groups and the circumstances when people would switch to a shared bicycle system. The method uses the panel data of Mobycon, interviews, and a focus group. The results show that familiarity, knowledge, and design of the system play a role in the openness to use a shared bicycle system, but that it is also dependent on the specific group and their circumstances. Another result is that a high number of participants were not open to using a shared bicycle system at all. Different recommendations are given for research, policy, and for Mobycon.

India, a predominantly rural country, relies on agriculture, with smallholder farmers owning a small portion of cultivable land. Maharashtra, a major cotton-growing region, faces water scarcity and drought events, leading to low crop yields and farmer indebtedness, followed by high suicide rates. Micro irrigation, such as drip and sprinkler systems, can improve water use productivity and mitigate the impacts of climate change on farmers’ incomes and thus livelihoods.

Psychosocial factors play a crucial role in farmers’ decisions to adopt irrigation technologies. Incorporating both contextual and psychosocial factors provides deeper insights into the adoption processes of various irrigation systems. The RANAS model has been recognized for behavior change strategies in developing countries and was applied in this research. It integrates psychosocial factors and is used to examine the impact of psychosocial factors on behavioral outcomes.

Regression analysis was performed on survey data in order to identify the factors that are assumed to have the ability to explain irrigation and micro irrigation adoption behavior. Four models were created, each focusing on a specific irrigation system: overall uptake, furrow irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, and drip irrigation. This approach allowed for a deeper understanding of the influential factors for different irrigation systems and avoided the generalization of the results. In an attempt to broaden the understanding that can be obtained from regression results, qualitative, open-ended field interviews were conducted with farmers and key informants. The field insights revealed how the local context dynamics influence the factors that have a predictive capability on the adoption of micro irrigation systems.

Farmers’ adoption of drip irrigation systems is influenced primarily by their confidence in financial capabilities and technical skills. However, the adoption of sprinkler irrigation systems is more complex. In addition to financial and technical considerations, farmers also consider factors such as easy access to water sources, concerns about future water availability, and descriptive norms, i.e. the actions other farmers take. This indicates that the barrier to adopting drip systems is mainly financial, while the adoption of sprinkler systems also involves to a certain extent normative influence and water-related concerns.

The RANAS method is effective in identifying predictive variables for micro irrigation adoption by breaking down the complex problem into manageable components. However, it has limitations. It overlooks the dynamic nature of the adoption process and fails to consider the significance of factors at different stages of behavior change. It also underestimates the role of economic and institutional constraints, which can influence farmers’ investment capacities and perceptions. Additionally, the methods reliance on the design of survey questions may introduce bias and affect the reliability of the interpreted empirical data.

Field insights highlight the significance of context-specific factors and the integration of economic capacities in farmers' adoption decisions. Economic stability is crucial for implementing micro irrigation systems, and financially vulnerable farmers may be risk-averse toward new technology. Community support and reduced risk perception can facilitate adoption. Examining profit margins and market prices provides a better understanding of adoption than just income. Considering practical aspects such as crop suitability and awareness of climate change and market dynamics further explain adoption choices. Trust-building is essential to enhance farmers' willingness to adopt irrigation systems.

This thesis examines the implementation of risk-based sewer asset management, with a specific focus on addressing the existing shortcomings in current practices. Notably, the neglect of sewer failure risks often leads to suboptimal allocation of resources. The primary aim of this research is to develop a comprehensible methodology for risk-based sewer asset management in the Netherlands. The proposed methodology employs a combined risk matrix approach to assess the level of risk associated with sewer collapse. This assessment takes into account both the probability of failure and the potential consequences of such failures. The thesis primarily focuses on the risk of sewer collapse within the context of the Netherlands. To demonstrate the applicability of the methodology, a case study is conducted in the municipality of Nissewaard. The outcomes of this case study are then compared to the conventional approach employed in Dutch sewer asset management. Through this analysis, the study emphasizes the necessity of establishing a practical roadmap for implementing risk-based sewer asset management. Additionally, recommendations are made for enhancing the objectivity of sewer inspections and developing a sewer deterioration model. The findings reveal that the adoption of risk-based asset management is more cost-effective in mitigating the risk of sewer collapse when compared to the prevailing replacement strategy. The research aims to bridge the gap between academic theory and practical application by providing a straightforward methodology grounded in prior research. In order to advance the field of risk-based approaches, this study calls for further research into the potential obstacles associated with implementing risk-based asset management. Such investigations will contribute to a better understanding of the challenges and facilitate the successful adoption of risk-based sewer asset management practices.

At a time when India experiences rapidly rising living standards, while facing increasing sustainability challenges, decoupling economic growth from the increase in energy consumption is a critical challenge. Energy efficiency solutions in the residential sector have an important role, as these can significantly curb energy consumption. To steer future adoption towards energy-efficient appliances, it is imperative to understand the drivers and barriers behind consumer choices.

The objective of this study is to understand the drivers and barriers behind the adoption of energy-efficient appliances in Indian households. These insights can be used to accelerate the adoption of these appliances and help India transition to a greener and more sustainable future. This study leverages an explanatory mixed methods approach in which a quantitative logistic regression model is followed by a qualitative analysis consisting of semi-structured expert interviews. This methodology is suitable for this research as it performs a robust empirical analysis of data through a regression. At the same time, the methodology allows deepening the understanding of observed patterns and contextualizes findings through expert insights. This synergy combines quantitative rigour with qualitative depth, providing a holistic understanding of factors influencing energy-efficient appliance adoption.

The initial phase consisted of a critical literature review, showing a limited academic focus on understanding the drivers behind energy-efficient appliance adoption in the Indian household sector. Variables relevant to adoption patterns were developed in this section, based on an overview of the academic research. In addition, the policy environment was conceptualized to create an overview of the policy domain and understand the effect of various Indian policies on energy-efficient consumer choices. This overview aided the understanding of the breadth and impact of policy measures. The quantitative element of the mixed methods approach is a logistic regression model in R, leveraging the IRES survey and the AEEE energy-efficiency index datasets. To corroborate and contextualize the quantitative findings, a qualitative phase was developed, consisting of 10 semi-structured expert interviews in India with policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and lobby organizations. Insights from the qualitative phase were systematically extracted using a thematic analysis. Lastly, an integration step was taken to combine the findings from both research phases and offer a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of drivers and barriers behind the adoption of energy-efficient lighting and fans.
This quantitative analysis revealed key drivers behind the adoption of LED lighting and energy-efficient ceiling fans such as a clear relationship between household income and the adoption of energy-efficient appliances, with higher income levels correlating strongly with increased adoption likelihood. Awareness, particularly regarding star labeling and environmental benefits, along with higher education levels and living conditions, such as grid connections and climate zones also positively influences energy-efficient appliance adoption. Urbanization significantly impacts the adoption of energy-efficient ceiling fans, while its effect on LED lighting adoption, though present, is not statistically significant. State-level policy impacts appear more nuanced, highlighting the need for further qualitative exploration to understand underlying regional influences. In the thematic analysis following from the expert-interviews, patterns around evolving themes were developed, revealing the dynamics behind the observed relationships between variables...

There is an urgent need for urban environments to be more flood resilient. The public can participate in addressing this by adopting household sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS). However, their lack of knowledge and awareness is a barrier. This paper presents an educational serious game to overcome this barrier and explores whether it can educate citizens about private household SuDS (and to what degree). A serious game named Sudsbury is designed to educate the public on household SuDS and the urgency to adopt them in the context of climate change and urbanisation. A study of 14 urban inhabitants participated in three game sessions evaluated with pre and post-game surveys. The study found that Sudsbury is a fun and engaging public intervention method successful in educating and impacting personal norm attitudes, with the potential to create growth in support and adoption of household SuD. Sudsbury was most successful in improving knowledge acquisition of household SuDS but found comprehension of concepts was limited by deficiencies in the game realism.

Despite their best intentions, policy interventions often fail to adequately address the challenges they were designed to tackle. Disparities in scope, taxonomy and performance perspectives employed by different policy studies, make it difficult to obtain a system perspective of the policy effects of a certain domain. Additionally, a prohibitively large body of literature often makes manual methods of review infeasible. To combat these shortcomings of existing policy analysis methods and provide an insightful way of informing policy evaluation and development, this project proposes a novel five-step policy analysis method that can semi-automatically derive and aggregate causal relations from policy literature into a causal map of policy effects. The method has been applied to a collection of 28 emissions trading scheme (ETS) policy analysis literature sources, producing a causal map consisting of 159 causal links with a recall of 38% and precision of 84%. The results demonstrate that applying this approach produces an aggregated system perspective of the analysed policy’s effects, and garners relevant insights for policy evaluation and development that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. This approach can therefore provide analysts from across different policy domains with a more comprehensive understanding of the factors and relations affecting policy and so provide a more comprehensive evidence base from which to inform policy development.

In 1972 the Union of Waterboards and the Association of Dutch Municipalities drew up a directive to give waterboards and municipalities a guideline in how to divide tasks and costs in the new situations that were the result of the Pollution of Surface Waters Act, decreed in 1970. At 7 waterboards costs are still settled with (a part of) the municipalities based on the method proposed in the directive. Most waterboards have therefore already abandoned this cost distribution. With the use of several focus points an overview has been created through interviews and document analysis on the current use of the cost distribution based on the directive. Various aspects emerged from the interviews and documents that may play a role in the application of the cost distribution based on the 1972 Directive. In the end, 9 subjects were mentioned or discussed more often that could have a direct or indirect influence on the fact why the cost distribution is (still) applied. These subjects appear to influence whether or not a cost distribution is used on the basis of the 1972 Directive. It could be a correlation of various factors per waterboard, but it could also be a coincidence. All in all, it is clear that the cost distribution based on the 1972 Directive is being applied less and less. The distribution method is also not being reintroduced by water boards and municipalities.

This thesis aims to understand if decision-making processes and institutional factors in Dutch municipalities hinder or enable the implementation of climate adaptation measures in urban drainage systems, and consequently climate adaptation efforts in the Netherlands. Interview findings showed that decision-making processes are evolving to incorporate climate adaptation efforts where possible. Implementation of climate adaptation measures was identified to occur when there was an opportunity to incorporate them into other necessary infrastructure projects, such as large-scale neighbourhood redevelopments, however taking advantage of these opportunities depended not only on their existence, but also on current institutional factors. Frequently identified hindering and enabling factors included the availability of financial resources, the current regulatory framework, fragmented roles and responsibilities within municipalities and the availability of sufficient and appropriately skilled personnel. Factors such as cultural/cognitive resistance and political incentive to action were also identified as hindering and enabling climate adaptation efforts. Interview findings also showed that in addition to the institutional factors, the actors involved in the decision-making process and the resources available to these actors played an important role in the decision-making processes. Four key actors were identified from the data: technical designers/ decision-makers, the local community, the municipal council and housing developers. The support or resistance of these actors strongly impacted the duration of the decision-making process and success implementing climate adaptive measures. Though the decision-making processes are evolving, the use of opportunity-based initiation tactics and ineffective bargaining tactics resulted in processes were often stalled or blocked prior to decision implementation. Improvements can be made to the decision-making tactics used by practitioners, however, the processes by themselves were not found to act as distinct hinderances. The institutional context within which these decisions are made has significant influence on the outcomes of the process and the institutional factors identified indicate that the current context is more hindering than enabling. Strategies to address some of these hindering factors can therefore also facilitate the decision-making processes and lead to an increase in implementation of climate adaptation in urban drainage systems.

In Ethiopia, rainfall variability and changes in rainfall patterns, induced by climate change, could increase the frequency and occurrence of floods and droughts. Due to smallholder farmers in the Gumera sub-basin, Ethiopia, mostly relying on rainfed agriculture, climatic changes highly influence the agricultural production with corresponding negative effects on food security and their economic well-being. To reduce their vulnerability to climate variability, the majority of smallholder farmers take up adaptation strategies, whereas a small group of farmers does not have the capacity to adapt. However, the understanding of what factors drive the climate adaptive capacity of farmers and how climate adaptive behaviour influences a farmer’s economic well-being is limited. Therefore, via a bottom-up approach, this study aims to determine what factors drive the climate adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in the Gumera sub-basin and how they adapt to climate variability. Focus Group Discussions are conducted prior to an individual household survey to obtain local-level knowledge and data on the characteristics of smallholder farmers. Subsequently, this data is used to develop a methodology to incorporate the climate adaptive behaviour of smallholder farmers in socio-hydrological modelling. By implementing a logit model, the (dynamic) adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers is implemented, which provides the opportunity to create a better understanding of why farmers adapt to climate variability and its impact on their economic well-being. From the Focus Group Discussions and the individual household survey it is observed that the majority of farmers adapt to climate variability in case of a bad year, defined as a drought, by changing to a short cycle crop, mostly potato, and adjusting the planting and harvesting dates. The drivers that are found to mainly influence the uptake of these adaptation strategies are farm size, altitude, level of education, the number of livestock owned, capital, experience, access to a weather forecast, and labour availability. A small group of farmers does not take up adaptation strategies instead. First of all, their adaptive capacity is constrained by a lack of land, labour, and a weather forecast. Secondly, the rather optimistic perception of non-adapting farmers towards climate change seems to limit their adaptive capacity. Thirdly, especially the limited use of the onset of rains by non-adapting farmers was observed to negatively influence their climate adaptive capacity. Incorporating the climate adaptive behaviour of smallholder farmers in socio-hydrological modelling by enabling a logit model showed to be a successful approach. Based on the main drivers for the climate adaptive capacity, the model is able to simulate the agricultural practices with respect to climate variability. As such, the model has shown to be able to simulate agricultural practices that better coincide with what is observed during both the Focus Group Discussions and the household survey. In addition, the methodology used to evaluate the long-term effect of climate adaptation on the economic well-being of a farmer has the potential to help in creating a better understanding of why farmers adapt to climate variability.

Of the world's population, 59% of the people are not connected to a sewer system and use on-site sanitation (OSS) systems. A large amount of these systems is unsafe. The ultimate goal of this research is to gain knowledge on manners to improve and monitor the safety of on-site sanitation (OSS) systems. The performance and safety of OSS systems are highly dependent on the level of faecal sludge in OSS system which is largely dependent on the accumulation rate of the sludge. However, scientists have not found a simple method to assess the accumulation rate of sludge. Knowing the sludge accumulation rate and therefore, knowing how quickly a tank fills, makes it possible to the necessary time between two emptying events or, with other words, the required emptying frequency. With the research presented in this thesis, a dynamical approach to viewing and assessing the status of OSS systems is developed in the form of a model by combining sludge accumulation theory and only a small number of in-field measurements. The modelled simulation of sludge accumulation shows highly similar results to empirical sludge accumulation studies. On the basis of the model, also a user-friendly tool has been developed that allows tank owners, policymakers or regulators to get personal recommendations regarding the emptying frequency of their OSS systems. This offers a new approach and with that an improvement of the way OSS system can be safely managed and monitored. This thesis provides evidence for the feasibility of constructing a numerical model as a measure to simulate sludge accumulation in OSS systems that can lead to emptying frequency recommendations. The results of this thesis can help in obtaining safe sanitation throughout the world and is aimed to contribute to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6.2.

Water is cherished as treasure in traditional Chinese culture and expected to stay in harmony with human. However, the disharmony between water and urban life is looming especially after over thirty-year rapid urbanization in China with notable global climate change. Faced with water-related issues, e.g. flooding, water pollution, water shortage, etc., Government of China initiated a so-called Sponge City Program (SCP) in 2014 for constructing ‘sponge-like’ water-resilient cities. Nevertheless, challenges and gaps lie in practice of SCP, one of which is that an operationalizable design approach of a sponge city to realise its multiple objectives is neither available in current guidelines, nor thoroughly studied or proposed in recent literatures.
The aim of this master thesis was to formulate an improved approach, as well as to improve planning & design framework for supporting integrated sponge design process and enhancing the involvement of various stakeholders. Literature study, the study of current guidelines and sponge plans of Nanjing, and interviews with sponge city practitioners were performed to evaluate current Sponge City (SC) concept and assess SC planning & design practice. Analysis of SC concept development showed that SC has been evolving from a term mainly describing measures with ecological benefits towards a more inclusive urban development paradigm, considering not only water ecology, but also water safety, water environment and water resource. Analysis on SC practice identified the gaps in current SC water management contents, including a lack of design method for calculating storage capacity against pluvial flooding, ignorance of extreme drought assessment, missing groundwater management, etc. Challenges that might impede comprehensive sponge city planning & design process were also enumerated, including data availability and accessibility, the bond between SC and other sector plans, etc. 
Based on the identified challenges and gaps, improvements on current planning & design practices were given and a new design approach was proposed, including changing collaboration method, introducing a co-design workshop and using a sponge design toolbox to facilitate planning & design process. The approach provided a method to calculate the required sponge capacity for not only preventing flood damage but also mitigating water shortage in dry spells, as well as quantifying other co-benefits. The improved design approach was tested by a case study in Nanjing, in the Qinhuai District sponge city planning project. Case study results showed that most steps in the proposed design process were successfully taken in Qinhuai project, and the toolbox was able to facilitate planning and design of sponge measures to have functions not only for pluvial flooding prevention and control, but also for water shortage mitigation, ecological benefits and other day-to-day values. The design process also demonstrated the collaborative contribution to a sponge city plan from water managers, water engineers and landscape architects. Therefore, the new design approach can contribute to a more integrated SC planning and design.

In Indonesia, river pollution due to inorganic solid waste has become an enormous issue. This article explores the (re)production of relations between communities, river and inorganic solid waste in the Surabaya River Basin. It does so by analysing activities based on interviews, observations and measurements. It tries to explain the current situation in the Surabaya River Basin and shows how ’river water’ and ’waste’ shape ontologies. Furthermore, how these two nonhuman actors act differently (or the same) in different ontologies. The definition used in this study for an ontology is "a construction of how concepts of reality are constructed". Several analyses are used. Firstly, statistics are used to support narratives where deemed necessary. In addition, QGIS is used to visualise data. Lastly, a flow diagram is made to show the flow of waste into the Surabaya River. Existence of multiple ontologies in the Surabaya River Basin is described. It is found that both reproduction of actions is present (on the short term) as well as production of different actions, which becomes more visible in the long term. For example, waste burning every afternoon is a reoccurring action. However, the reduction of single-use plastics is an evolved state. The riverbank is an important location in the relations and could serve as a suitable location for such actions. Lack of information, communication and facilities are identified to be the most important issues. In general, people are optimistic and motivated concerning the environment. However there are some people not engaged. This causes a divide and together with social control leads to tensions in the community. Recommendations include, among others, setting up an information sharing platform between institutions and community members and making use of the cultural resources to work towards a common goal. Including the multiple ontologies in decision-making processes could lead to inclusive and sustainable river management and waste management.

Fresh water resources in coastal areas are under intense pressure from groundwater consuming activities, sea level rise and extreme weather events, which effectively amplify salt water intrusion (SWI) into coastal freshwater aquifers. Literature on SWI describe the effects of SWI, model SWI scenarios and explain possible SWI mitigation strategies. To our knowledge there are, however, no studies that combine socioeconomic data with groundwater simulations to estimate SWI mitigation prevalence within an area. In this study, we demonstrate how a socioeconomic model can be combined with groundwater simulations to explore the possible role of behaviour willingness in finding suitable SWI adaptation/ mitigation strategies. The coastal province of Tra Vinh, located in the populated Vietnamese Mekong Delta, is an area affected by SWI and was used as case study area. Data collected from 313 households spread over nine communes, within the province, was used to construct a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model. The model integrates both socioeconomic (e.g. education, age) and psychosocial (behavioural) characteristics, to predict the willingness to change of the population; willingness to change from groundwater to a different source of water. The validated BBN model showed good model performances. The research found amongst others, using three model analysis, how the BBN model could be used on both regional (province) and local (commune) scale. The two different scales can help in defining both target groups and suitable locations for SWI mitigation/ adaptation interventions. Moreover, this study did not focus on finding suitable alternative water sources, that can serve as a substitute for groundwater abstraction. Though, the model analysis can help to more effectively define the possibilities of alternative sources and/ or water-saving interventions.