The mechanisms of private-well groundwater contamination are uniquely complex, necessitating a multisector communicative approach to risk management, premised on behaviour promotion. In countries such as the Republic of Ireland (ROI), characterised by oftentimes high groundwater contamination risk and concurrently limited user awareness, incorporation of multidisciplinary, ‘expert-based’ knowledge may facilitate design of evidence-based, practical interventions. Expert interviews represent an efficient form of expert consultation, enabling ease of access to niche information and comparison of procedure, but remain under-utilised within the groundwater management literature. In response, the current study elicited opinion from 50 experts across four broad categories (communications, engineering/science, policy, and risk assessment) via a mixed-methods interview study. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with experts from the ROI (n = 25) and European/North American countries (n = 25) and examined using thematic (qualitative) and bivariate statistical (quantitative) analyses. Experts noted financial cost, knowledge and social norms as primary barriers to adopting private-groundwater and other health risk-prevention behaviours. Lack of organisational knowledge as a communication barrier was significantly related to expert category (p = 0.034) and highlighted by a majority of communications experts (95%) compared to policy (75%), risk assessment (67%) and engineering/science (50%) experts. The most frequently suggested communication activities comprised events (24%), radio segments (22%), workshops (24%) and community meetings (30%), allied with family-oriented, discursive approaches to information delivery. Study findings may be used by both national (Irish) and international stakeholders in myriad hydrogeological contexts to develop educational outreach strategies and contribute to the existing groundwater-management-knowledge base.

私人井水地下水污染的机制非常复杂，因此需要以行为促进为前提的多部门交流风险管理方法。在爱尔兰共和国（ROI）等国家，其特点是经常存在较高的地下水污染风险，同时用户意识有限，因此纳入多学科的“基于专家”的知识可能有助于设计基于证据的实际干预措施。专家访谈是专家咨询的一种有效形式，可以轻松访问利基信息和比较程序，但在地下水管理文献中仍未得到充分利用。作为回应，本研究引起了来自四大类（通讯，工程/科学，政策，和风险评估）。与ROI的专家进行了半结构化的定性访谈（n  = 25）和欧洲/北美国家（n  = 25），并使用主题（定性）和双变量统计（定量）分析进行了检验。专家指出，财务成本，知识和社会规范是采用私人地下水和其他预防健康风险行为的主要障碍。缺乏组织知识作为沟通障碍与专家类别显着相关（p = 0.034），并且与政策（75％），风险评估（67％）和工程/科学（50％）专家相比，大多数沟通专家（95％）强调。建议的最频繁的交流活动包括事件（24％），广播部分（22％），研讨会（24％）和社区会议（30％），以及面向家庭的，分散的信息传递方法。国家（爱尔兰）和国际利益相关者均可在无数水文地质背景下使用研究结果来制定教育推广策略，并为现有的地下水管理知识基础做出贡献。