University of Maryland College Park, Maryland, United States
Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) is often viewed as a solution to manage many urban environmental challenges and the impacts of climate change. GI may meet these challenges by providing a suite of ecosystem services. Despite this promise, the implementation of GI is potentially hindered by a lack of understanding of the decision-making process for adoption of GI in cities. Researchers increasingly recognize that there is a growing set of diverse actors and entities engaged in designing, implementing, and fostering GI policy and practice. We aim to better understand how urban GI policy and practice take shape over time. Here, we discuss a coupled human-natural systems project that investigates the ecological and decision-making dimensions of GI in Tucson, Arizona, USA. We use ecosystem services as a boundary object to understand GI implementation and practice. In this presentation we ask, how do stakeholder perceptions and views related to ecosystem services influence practice and implementation of GI? We address this question by engaging decision makers and urban design and planning practitioners in Tucson, AZ with: (1) a survey instrument, (2) interviews that build a timeline of policy and practice, and (3) a series of science-policy dialogues that use participant modeling approaches.
Our survey work shows that there are both similarities and differences in stakeholder perceptions of GI that are key to adoption and practice. Stakeholders prioritizing water sustainability and a need to use water harvesting approaches to reduce water demand and to support vegetation to mitigate urban heat islands. Interviews with stakeholders suggests the importance of interconnected but diverse roles for entrepreneurs who might be early adopters of GI practice or promotors of GI and water harvesting policy. Talking with stakeholders also reveals how learning occurs and takes shape across scales, and how they realize and address inequities in GI and environmental amenities. Diverse stakeholders have a strong demand for ecosystem services related to water sustainability and local climate mitigation. Demand for different services vary across sectors. In science-policy dialogues with stakeholders participatory modeling approaches reinforce these differences in perspectives and highlight potential barriers to adoption of GI. Our results shed light on means and roles for collaboration that emerges in the decision-making process. The ecosystem services of GI are a boundary object and a socio-ecohydrologic hotspot that enables connectivities in urban ecosystems that may foster the improvement urban environments.
