Carissa Schively Slotterback

Is There a Role for Evidence-Based Practice in Urban Planning and Policy?

Can the craft of planning take advantage of a growing body of planning-relevant research? Evidence-based practice proposes a better connection between research and professional work, but raises several concerns about the character of valid evidence, the strength and clarity of planning research, and inequalities in the available resources for integrating research into planning practice. Much of planning practice is a reflective craft where skills of mediation, negotiation, listening, and framing are prominent. As part of the planners work employing these skills, however, there is a valuable role for research-generated evidence to inform decision making. Evidence-based practice needs careful implementation but it can enrich the field of planning by linking research to practice.

Group Learning in Participatory Planning Processes: An Exploratory Quasiexperimental Analysis of Local Mitigation Planning in Florida

Scholars have identified group learning as both an outcome of effective participatory planning processes and as the means to achieving agreement on planning outputs and to building constituencies for plan implementation. This article examines the challenges of designing empirical studies of group learning in participatory planning processes that have strong internal and external validity and reports the results of a quasiexperimental analysis of how different degrees of participation increase mutual understanding of planning problems and solutions.

TMDL implementation in agricultural landscapes: A communicative and systemic approach

Increasingly, total maximum daily load (TMDL) limits are being defined for agricultural watersheds. Reductions in non-point source pollution are often needed to meet TMDL limits, and improvements in management of annual crops appear insufficient to achieve the necessary reductions. Increased adoption of perennial crops and other changes in agricultural land use also appear necessary, but face major barriers. We outline a novel strategy that aims to create new economic opportunities for land-owners and other stakeholders and thereby to attract their voluntary participation in land-use change needed to meet TMDLs. Our strategy has two key elements. First, focused efforts are needed to create new economic enterprises that capitalize on the productive potential of multifunctional agriculture (MFA). MFA seeks to produce a wide range of goods and ecosystem services by well-designed deployment of annual and perennial crops across agricultural landscapes and watersheds; new revenue from MFA may substantially finance land-use change needed to meet TMDLs. Second, efforts to capitalize on MFA should use a novel methodology, the Communicative/Systemic Approach (C/SA). C/SA uses an integrative GIS-based spatial modeling framework for systematically assessing tradeoffs and synergies in design and evaluation of multifunctional agricultural landscapes, closely linked to deliberation and design processes by which multiple stakeholders can collaboratively create appropriate and acceptable MFA landscape designs. We anticipate that application of C/SA will strongly accelerate TMDL implementation, by aligning the interests of multiple stakeholders whose active support is needed to change agricultural land use and thereby meet TMDL goals.

Planners' Perspectives on Using Technology in Participatory Processes

This study examined potential opportunities and constraints related to the development and deployment of technology in participation processes, including resources available, benefits and outcomes of technology, and technology implementation. On the basis of a survey of planners relative to eleven technology scenarios, varied access to staff, hardware, and software resources was reported. Potential perceived benefits of technology use included providing information and, to a lesser extent, fostering discussion and attracting additional participants. The findings suggest the greatest potential is for more basic technologies including websites that provide information, as opposed to more advanced technologies that would have greater potential to enhance collaborative and interactive participation approaches. Concerns about equitable access to technology for both planners and participants are also noted by survey respondents. The findings emphasize the importance of using technology as an enhancement to, rather than a replacement for, more traditional participation efforts.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) for Planners: What Tools Are Useful?

Health impact assessments (HIAs) provide an attractive approach for those interested in injecting health issues into planning processes. While HIAs have been mainly employed outside the United States and led by professionals from the public health field, they hold promise for addressing the important dimension of human health in planning. This article describes the history of HIAs and their relationship to other analogous tools, reviews current theory and practice of HIAs, and discusses the role of HIAs in current planning initiatives. The authors suggest it is important to modify existing HIA tools so that they are perceived by planners as a useful supplement to current planning processes rather than a burdensome additional requirement. The authors close by discussing how HIAs present distinct advantages, providing a more specific focus on the important topic of human health and a further opportunity to more closely partner with potential allies from public health and related fields.

Society Is Ready for a New Kind of Science—Is Academia?

Society Is Ready for a New Kind of Science—Is Academia? Bonnie L. Keeler, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Anne D. Guerry, Prue F. E. Addison, Charles Bettigole, Ingrid C. Burke, Brad Gentry, Lauren Chambliss, Carrie Young, Alexander J. Travis, Chris T. Darimont, Doria R. Gordon, Jessica Hellmann, Peter Kareiva, Steve Monfort, Lydia Olander, Tim Profeta, Hugh P. Possingham, Carissa Slotterback, Eleanor Sterling, Tamara Ticktin, and Bhaskar Vira July 2017

Addressing climate change in state and local environmental impact analysis

This study examines the first generation of state and local policies in the US that require consideration of climate change in environmental impact analysis (EIA). Based on a review of six policies, the study finds significant variation in approach relative to the nature of analyses (quantitative versus qualitative), consideration of various greenhouse gases, methods used to analyse impacts, applicability of policies and approaches to integrating climate change analyses into EIA documents. At the same time, the analysis highlights key challenges associated with addressing climate change in the existing EIA framework, including addressing cumulative effects and scientific uncertainty and evaluating the significance of project-scale climate change impacts.

Stakeholder involvement in NEPA scoping processes: evaluating practices and effects in transportation agencies

Focusing on environmental review practice in state departments of transportation in the US, the study examines the practices and effects of stakeholder involvement in scoping processes conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Based on a survey of environmental review staff in 46 of the 50 states, the study finds variation in approaches used by states and relatively high levels of perceived effectiveness. The findings include a number of internal and external factors that contribute to effectiveness and highlight the impacts of participation on the content and outcomes of scoping processes.

Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC): Harnessing University Resources to Create Change

University–community collaborations, that is partnerships between universities and community organizations, cities, etc., have significant potential to advance both, education and urban innovation. Urban areas face a number of constraints in identifying and advancing innovations as city and community leaders may lack access to the latest scientific evidence and examples of best practice. Additionally, administrative structures can hinder interdisciplinary interactions between departments and the nature of decision-making in the urban political context overall tends to contribute to a culture of risk aversion that undermines creative problem solving. Universities can help communities address these challenges by channeling the work of faculty and students to critical problems and opportunities facing urban areas while at the same time universities and their faculty and students benefit from engagement with the realities of urban planning and decision-making. In 2009, a new, unique, large-scale, and purposeful university–community partnership program was developed at the University of Oregon to help bridge the city–university gap and in 2016 over twenty-five other universities have subsequently adopted and adapted what is now known as an “Educational Partnership for Innovation in Communities (EPIC)” framework. This chapter describes the replicable framework and highlights three university-based programs, all of which include substantial engagement of urban planning programs. Further, the chapter makes the case for campus and societal leadership by planning educators and programs across the globe.

Multifunctional agricultural watersheds for climate adaptation in Midwest USA: commentary

Meeting the societal demand for food, bioproducts and water under climate change is likely to greatly challenge the maize-soybean agriculture of the Midwest USA, which is a globally significant resource. New agricultural systems are needed that can meet this challenge. Innovations in water management engineering and cropping system diversification may provide a way forward, enabling transformation to highly multifunctional agricultural watersheds that expand both agricultural production and water-related services to society, and which provide scalable units of climate adaptation in agriculture and water systems. Implementation and refinement of such watersheds require corresponding social innovation to create supportive social systems, in economic, political and cultural terms. A range of emerging social innovations can drive the emergence of highly multifunctional agricultural watersheds, by enabling robust cooperation, resource exchange and coordinated innovation across multiple societal sectors and scales. We highlight relevant innovations and opportunities for their exploratory implementation and refinement in the Midwest.