Water scarcity reveals fundamental differences between community values and priorities informing management

Water scarcity poses a global challenge, requiring management to navigate competing demands and account for community values. Freshwater policy often emphasizes these values without considering priorities and how they may shift under scarcity. We evaluated differences between values and priorities under hypothetical water scarcity constraints using semi-structured interviews in the Goulburn-Broken River catchment in southern Australia. The results demonstrate clear differences between values and priorities. Participants referred to social values in open-ended questions but deprioritized them when asked to arrange values by importance or allocate limited water to values. Despite shifting specific priorities in the two exercises, interviewees’ reasoning for their priority decisions remained anchored in stable, abstract core values. This suggests that core values could provide a stronger foundation for policy and help interpret specific priorities relevant to decision making. Recognizing the distinction between values and priorities can help water management policies better reflect community preferences, providing decision makers with meaningful, actionable information in water-scarce contexts.