Carefully designed common-pool resource (CPR) management systems can improve water security, but many NGOs and governments do not have the resources and logistical capacity to implement all important features of a system at once. In addition, users’ perception of management features is important to increase buy-in and adoption of a new system. Which aspects of a commons management system do users perceive to be most important? We conduct a conjoint survey experiment about groundwater management with rural residents in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil. We randomly vary five features of a water management system: 1) discussion, 2) social sanctions for overuse, 3) rules and penalties, 4) payment, 5) monitoring and dissemination of conditions to users. Each feature increases perceived likelihood of collective well management and individual water conservation. We find that features act as complements or substitutes; in particular, discussion complements monitoring, and payment substitutes for rules. Our results have implications for how to study and prioritize the features of CPR management systems to improve water security in other rural, semi-arid regions with groundwater reliance when it is infeasible to implement all recommended features.

精心设计的公共池资源 (CPR) 管理系统可以改善水安全，但许多非政府组织和政府没有资源和后勤能力来一次实施系统的所有重要功能。此外，用户对管理功能的看法对于增加对新系统的认可和采用也很重要。用户认为公共管理系统的哪些方面最重要？我们与巴西东北部半干旱地区的农村居民进行了一项关于地下水管理的联合调查实验。我们随机改变水管理系统的五个特征：1) 讨论，2) 过度使用的社会制裁，3) 规则和处罚，4) 付款，5) 监测和向用户传播条件。每个特征都增加了集体井管理和个人节水的感知可能性。我们发现特征可以起到补充或替代的作用；特别是，讨论补充了监控，支付替代了规则。我们的研究结果对如何研究和优先考虑 CPR 管理系统的功能以改善其他依赖地下水的农村、半干旱地区的水安全具有重要意义，因为这些功能无法实施所有推荐的功能。