Geertje Schuitema | UCD Ireland (original) (raw)

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Papers by Geertje Schuitema

To reach the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, environmental policy interventions are r... more To reach the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, environmental policy interventions are required to promote behaviour change on a broad scale. A key question here is how to design policies that are both effective at promoting behaviour change and acceptable to the public. This symposium will discuss which individual factors, such as values, and policy characteristics, such as framing, affect the effectiveness and acceptability of policy. Geertje Schuitema and Carla Rodriguez Sanchez will explore the role of emotions in the acceptability of water charges introduced in Ireland. They will discuss how the strength of positive or negative emotions, such as anger, can predict the acceptability of policies with personal financial implications. They will discuss the importance of focussing on affective factors, rather than purely rational arguments, in policy communication. Julia Steinhorst will present on how promoting pro-environmental behaviour in the private sphere may promote p...

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2021

Journal of Environmental Management, 2020

Mismanagement of drinking water supplies can pose serious public health risks. There are many con... more Mismanagement of drinking water supplies can pose serious public health risks. There are many concerns about water source management among private well owners, as they are often solely responsible for maintaining their wells, and monitoring and testing of their own water quality. Lack of worry about contamination and a strong sense of control over risks in relation to drinking water quality have been identified as important factors that influence peoples' perceptions and behaviour. In this paper, we investigated how worry and perceived control moderate the influence of risk perceptions on water quality perceptions and well owners' maintenance behaviours. We compare a sample of private well owners (N = 167) with a sample of members of Group Water Schemes (GWS) (N = 160) and people who are supplied via the public mains (N = 195), to validate our results. We found that, in comparison to the other groups, well owners believe that water from private wells is superior and they express a higher level of control over contamination risks of their drinking water. Moreover, strong feelings of control suppress their perceptions of risk in relation to water quality. However, well owners who feel largely in control also maintain their well more frequently. We discuss the implications of these results for communication strategies with well owners.

In this paper, a novel distributed control strategy addressing a (feasible) social-physical welfa... more In this paper, a novel distributed control strategy addressing a (feasible) social-physical welfare problem in Direct Current (DC) smart grids is proposed, which is based on physical, technical and social aspects of the grid. Firstly, we formulate a (convex) optimization problem that allows prosumers to share power -- and the financial and psycho-social costs and benefits associated with the generation and consumption of power -- with each other, taking into account the technical, physical and social aspects and constraints of the grid (e.g., stability, safety, user preferences). Secondly, we design a controller whose (unforced) dynamics represent the continuous time primal-dual dynamics of the considered optimization problem. Thirdly, a passive interconnection between the physical grid and the controller is presented. Global asymptotic convergence of the closed-loop system to the desired steady-state is proved and simulations illustrate and confirm the theoretical results.

Risk Analysis, 2019

In rural areas where no public or group water schemes exist, groundwater is often the only source... more In rural areas where no public or group water schemes exist, groundwater is often the only source of drinking water and is extracted by drilling private wells. Typically, private well owners are responsible for the quality and testing of their own drinking water. Previous studies indicate that well owners tend to underestimate the risks of their well water being contaminated, yet little is known about why this is the case. We conducted a qualitative study by interviewing private well owners in Ireland to investigate their beliefs surrounding their water quality, which, in turn, inform their risk perceptions and their willingness to regularly test their water. Based on our findings we designed a theoretical model arguing that perceived control is central in the perceived contamination risks of well water. More specifically, we argue that well owners have the illusion of being in control over their water quality, which implies that people often perceive themselves to be more in control of a situation than they actually are. As a result, they tend to underestimate contamination risks, which subsequently impact negatively on water testing behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are highlighted.

IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, 2018

IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, 2017

A transition to fossil-free energy systems is necessary to secure a safe, reliable, and sustainab... more A transition to fossil-free energy systems is necessary to secure a safe, reliable, and sustainable future. This implies increasing shares of renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, and introduces new challenges in terms of flexibility, storage, and energy transmission. Consumers play a crucial role in achieving this energy transition, as consumer flexibility is required to accommodate variable generation and peak loads. This implies that consumers become more flexible in their energy use and adopt technologies that facilitate greater reliance on renewable energy sources.