Enviro Pulse Survey (2020-ongoing)

Survey objectives:

The Enviro Pulse Survey provides regular, high level environmental social indicators to several divisions within NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) in support of the NSW Climate Change Fund Policy Framework and the NSW Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.

The Enviro Pulse Survey questionnaire was developed in 2020, in collaboration with policy and program teams at the Department, and with support from James Cook University. This work was underpinned by a modified Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework. The survey has been enhanced over time by the DCCEEW Social Science team to support new strategic needs and address knowledge gaps. The survey data is used to inform and support environmental policy, research, programs and evaluations at DCCEEW. It helps to reduce the need for expensive ad hoc research consulting and effort duplication.

The survey is administered to a representative sample of NSW population four times a year, to understand trends, and measure variance across space and between social groups. 

It aims to provide ongoing information to DCCEEW on: 
<ul>
<li>NSW residents' access to environmental assets and resources; </li>
<li>Environmental vulnerability and resilience; </li>
<li>Community values, and support for policy decisions; </li>
<li>Environmental motivations and behaviours.</li>
</ul>

Survey methodology:

The Enviro Pulse survey is administered quarterly, and is issued as a 20 minute online questionnaire to a total of n=1,000 residents of NSW aged 18 and over. The first survey was conducted in December 2020.

The questionnaire is modular in structure: - Key indicators are measured every three months.  - Other survey topics (e.g. connection to place, concern for environment, energy use and motivations) are alternating every other survey wave, i.e. data for each thematic module is collected every six months.

The study tracks trends over time and most of the questions have remained the same throughout the survey program. Minor amendments have occasionally been made to the questionnaire, and new questions have been added to support emerging strategic needs.

The survey was built and is hosted using the Qualtrics survey platform. A number of data quality checks are conducted at launch of each survey pulse, and on delivery of the final data of each wave. 

Qualtrics is responsible for sourcing participants from several market research panel providers. Quotas have been set by key demographics to ensure a representative sample. The final results are weighted by age group, gender, regional proportions, and Aboriginal status for NSW population. It is acknowledged that some groups may be underrepresented in the final sample - such as residents with limited English skills, residents with low or no formal education, etc. 

Data accuracy, reporting:

Results are reported on an aggregated level in order to protect the privacy and anonymity of individual respondents,  to meet social research industry standards,  and to ensure the robustness of the results.

At the aggregate NSW level, the survey has high levels of accuracy, due to the large sample size (i.e. approximately 1,000 responses per wave). Typically, at the 95% confidence level, the margin of error on the reported survey results is approximately +/- 3% points or less. This means that the difference between two reported results may have to be at least 6% points for the gap to be considered statistically significant. Statistically significant changes over time have been highlighted in the attached survey results, where applicable. 

External events - such as Covid-19 pandemic related public health orders, extreme weather events in NSW - so far have not impacted the ability to gather sample for the study. However, as this is a social research dataset, it is expected that such external events have an impact on the environmental attitudes and behaviours that the survey has been designed to collect information on, and may explain some of the variance in the results over time. 

...

Feedback and questions:  <a href="mailto:SocialResearch@environment.nsw.gov.au">SocialResearch@environment.nsw.gov.au</a>

Tags: Enviro Pulse Survey, Environmental Social Indicators, access to nature, adaptation to climate change, climate change impacts and risks, community, energy, environmental attitudes, environmental behaviours, social research
Organization: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water