Wendy A. Kellogg

Community-based Organizations and Neighbourhood Environmental Problem Solving: A Framework for Adoption of Information Technologies

Community-based organizations (CBOs) today seek improved capacity to address environmental problems in urban neighbourhoods. Many seek access to information technologies such as the Internet and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to expand information about their neighbourhoods environmental quality to support their planning and service efforts. Experience with the Internet has been bolstered somewhat by programmesto create community networks. This experience and experience with GIS in planning at the municipal and state levels reveals a set of technical, organizational and personal prerequisites that bolster successful and effective adoption of information technologies. This paper reviews these prerequisites as they pertain to CBOs and makes recommendations for transactions that could enhance CBO adoption of the Internet and GIS to address environmental problems in urban neighbourhoods. The paper concludes that a constellation of prerequisite conditions, most predominantly data availability problems, staff skill acquisition and staff retention problems, offer the greatest challenges for CBOs seeking to adopt information technologies to manage environmental problems more effectively.

Environmental Justice and Information Technologies: Overcoming the Information-Access Paradox in Urban Communities.

Scientific studies and resident testimony suggest that urban residents in low-income and minority communities have been subject to an unequal burden of environmental pollution and inequitable environmental enforcement practices. A key component of the equitable development and implementation of environmental policies is the participation of citizens and community-based organizations in the policy process. Such participation rests upon equitable access to agency-generated environmental information and effective use of that information by citizens. This article focuses on the adoption of Internet technologies by environmental agencies as a mechanism for disseminating information and the implications for low-income and minority residents in urban communities. A framework is developed to guide a programmatic response to overcome these implications. The results from several community-based projects are described and analyzed for their capacity-building effectiveness. Analysis of the projects indicates improvement in community capacity for information access and use, which bolstered community participation in the environmental decision-making process.

Adopting an Ecosystem Approach: Local Variability in Remedial Action Planning

Through the 1970s and 1980s Great Lakes scientists advocated adoption of an “ecosystem approach”; as a framework for water quality policy, including development of remedial action plans (RAPs) for the 43 areas of concern in the Great Lakes basin. RAPs are developed by state and provincial environmental or resource agencies, often in consultation with local stakeholder or citizen advisory committees. The International Joint Commissions guidelines for adopting an ecosystem‐based approach describe the need for more integrative conceptual frameworks, interdisciplinary information, and flexible institutional arrangements. This article describes adoption of an ecosystem approach by lead agencies in two RAPs, where adoption was shaped by a constellation of organizational differences and contextual variables. In both, a community‐based RAP committee played an important role.

Metropolitan Growth and the Local Role in Surface Water Resource Protection in the Lake Erie Basin

Local governments can play an important role in protecting surface water resources through their compliance with federal and state regulations and through their own land use planning and management practices. Despite 30 years of water quality initiatives in the Lake Erie basin, nonpoint source runoff from urban and urbanizing lands remains a problem. Loss of riparian corridor integrity is increasing as urban areas in the Lake Erie basin experience areal growth. The use and management of land, predominantly a local responsibility, directly affects surface water resources. The role that local governments play in protecting surface water resources was studied in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the core of the greater Cleveland area. Zoning, building, subdivision, and health ordinances of local governments were reviewed and analyzed. Local governments were then asked to indicate their current planning and management techniques for surface water protection. Overall, protection of surface water resources in the county is inadequate. Local jurisdictions infrequently use the innovative planning mechanisms and water resource management practices suggested by state and federal water resource agencies and organizations. The uneven and fragmented land management system, if replicated in adjacent counties that are now urbanizing, bodes ill for Lake Eries near-shore water quality.

Cleveland's Ecovillage: Green and Affordable Housing Through a Network Alliance

This article presents a case study of the inter-organizational network that formed to produce four housing projects in Clevelands EcoVillage designed to integrate social equity and ecological stewardship as the basis for neighborhood redevelopment. Our paper builds on concepts of community development and housing production through inter-organizational networks spanning nonprofit, public, and private organizations that developed and supported four “green” and affordable housing projects. We are interested in understanding how development of the housing projects changed and connected traditional neighborhood development and ecologically-oriented organizations and how their interaction changed the practice of housing production and environmental and sustainability advocacy locally and regionally. The results of the study reveal that the marriage of green and affordable housing in Cleveland, despite some challenges, was viewed as important and beneficial by the organizations involved, and resulted in a range of demonstration projects that not only changed the EcoVillage, but affected other neighborhood housing projects in Cleveland as well. The projects resulted in enhanced capacity for green housing production through creation of a new network of organizations spanning the housing and environmental sustainability fields of practice that continues to support sustainable housing and neighborhood development in Cleveland.

Nature's Neighborhood - Urban Environmental History and Neighborhood Planning

Abstract The physical form of an urban settlement is a product of the reciprocal relationship between the humans and the ecological systems in the area which act together to create an urban landscape that changes through time. While many of the interactions between the natural world and the built environment occur at the regional level, the quality of life experienced by residents is in large part a function of environmental conditions in the neighborhood. This article explores the benefits to neighborhood planning from incorporating urban environmental history. It reviews the conceptual territory of urban environmental history and presents a framework for its application to neighborhood planning. An environmental history completed for a neighborhood is highlighted to illustrate the technique.

Training Needs of Coastal Resources Decision Makers in Ohio's Lake Erie Basin

This article describes results from a study focused on informational and knowledge needs of local coastal resources decision makers in the Ohio Lake Erie basin. New information was obtained through a series of focus groups of local decision makers and key training providers in the basin. The results suggest that training providers and local coastal resources decision makers have differing perceptions of knowledge and information needs and training venues. The results suggest a role for state and federal agency training providers as coordinators and facilitators of an enhanced learning network among decision makers, including support of an information clearinghouse, adoption of appropriate e-based learning modalities, and regionally based learning and practice networks to improve the function of the training market to meet local decision maker needs.

Ohio's Balanced Growth Program: a case study of collaboration for planning and policy design

This paper describes the collaborative planning process for a new landscape planning programme in Ohio that seeks to influence land urbanisation patterns through joint local land use decision making on a watershed basis. The programme was developed through a collaborative process by a state agency-appointed task force that included agency staff and a wide range of stakeholders. The paper describes the process in terms of the collaborative mechanisms, the participants, the programmatic outputs, and the social and organisational outcomes that set the foundation for enhanced watershed quality through better land use decision-making practices. Key collaborations formed during the process were inter-agency collaborations, a non-profit organisation that partnered with the agencies, and that of state agencies with local governments to develop watershed-based land use plans. A most critical outcome was creation of a learning community, through an exploratory research process that used multiple methods of data gathering and consensus-building deliberation. The paper is based on a review of published documents and plans, meeting minutes, participant observation of committee and workgroup meetings and interactive research.

The Use Of Constituent Focus Groups For More Effective Program Planning And Management: A Case Study Of The Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund

Ohios industrial legacy includes thousands of abandoned or underutilized properties with environmental contamination that precludes economically beneficial use of the property. This paper describes the program planning process and its outcomes for one program authorized by new legislation to fund cleanup of these brownfields. Local administrative committees that would eventually make the funding award decisions were organized into focus groups across 19 administrative districts in the state of Ohio. These groups specified the programs award criteria and their definitions, established funding priorities, and developed a scoring rubric to award grants for brownfield cleanup activities. Findings from our analysis are important for understanding how stakeholder involvement in development of the scoring rubric allowed the administrative managers to improve the overall effectiveness of the program.

Training Opportunities Available to Ohio Lake Erie Basin Local Decision-makers Regarding the Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Coastal and Watershed Stewardship

ABSTRACT This paper presents new knowledge about the current status of training on the economic value of stewardship practices in the Ohio Lake Erie basin. Local decision-makers shape coastal and watershed conditions but often do not appreciate the economic, fiscal, and ecological benefits that could be gained from sound stewardship practices. This study investigated the information and training about economic benefits available in the Ohio Lake Erie basin. Training providers and technical assistance professionals helped identify key training needs and challenges to decision-maker awareness of benefits. We found relatively few organizations offering training that incorporate economic or fiscal benefits into their curricula. Within these programs, stormwater management and tourism were the most popular training topics among local decision-makers. Regarding target audiences, training providers noted that public sector participants tended to be interested in the fiscal (tax revenue and public spending) impacts of regulations and in economic development. Our analysis suggests a need to document the economic and fiscal benefits and costs to existing practices in the Lake Erie basin to provide case studies and examples for peer-to-peer education for local decision-makers. The results suggest a need for increased collaboration among training providers and educational institutions in the Lake Erie basin to develop case studies or fact sheets of benefits and costs. The results also suggest that creating a technical advisory network concerning economic benefits and costs would provide a useful service to local decision-makers.