A phone and internet survey is to be undertaken to find out how much people know about the Otago Regional Council.
A telephone survey of 900 people by Tauranga-based Key Research Group this month will be complemented by one on the council's website.
Council chief executive Peter Bodeker said the survey was the first of its kind for the council, which in the past had only surveyed its resource consent survey applicants.
''We want to gauge the degree to which the community understand our role and how well they rate the services we deliver,'' Mr Bodeker said.
The survey would focus on public understanding of the council's role in the sustainable management of water, land, air, and public transport.
Exploring people's understanding of the organisation and their view of what was important for the council to focus on was a means of helping to guide the nature and direction of its future activities, Mr Bodeker said.
The initial survey would be done across the region and results broken down into the five local authority districts within it.
It would aim for a spread of respondents across main urban areas, townships and rural areas and across various age groups.
''We hope as many people as possible will complete the online survey, because that will help us make decisions about service provision, community engagement, communications, and activity planning and implementation, and help us prioritise these activities.''
The survey results would be available later this year.
