Prior research has documented environmental and economic benefits of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI); literature on GSI social benefits is also becoming more prevalent among scholars around the world. This paper aims to understand whether GSI projects are considered as assets to urban neighborhoods or as projects that might introduce a new set of social concerns. Based on field observations of 238 GSI projects and 50 intercept interviews, we investigate selected social aspects of GSI, such as project context, visual appearance, recreational appeal, meaning, and public perception, in two neighboring US cities—Philadelphia and Camden. Analysis of field data and observation notes revealed that GSI project setting impacted recreational appeal; their appearance was related to maintenance and signage; and their interaction with the public depended on location, land use, and visual/recreational appeal. Most GSI sites with the presence of trash, but the absence of signage were found in potentially disadvantaged areas. According to intercept interviews, many people were not aware of GSI presence in the neighborhood, were not familiar with GSI or its functionality, did not find a way to get access to GSI or interact with them, and were generally concerned about poor design, defective construction, or lack of maintenance. We argue that lack of information and community care/support for GSI can result in social disinvestments in these projects, which can facilitate improper use and maintenance issues, affecting their intended basic environmental functions. Consistent with prior research, we speak to the importance of participatory planning processes in improving community acceptance and interests around GSI planning and installation in urban landscapes.
Maui, Hawaii, USA is an island with sensitive ecosystems and sharply circumscribed spatial resources for waste disposal. Despite the State of Hawaii's preferences to the contrary, Maui remains heavily dependent on landfilling and to a lesser extent, landfill diversion techniques to manage its solid waste. This article examines the history of solid waste management on Maui through the lens of Bulkeley, Watson, and Hudson's (2007) 'modes of governing' framework for the analysis of environmental and infrastructural policy issues. This approach asks users to consider equally and simultaneously the structures, processes, technologies, and ultimately, multiplicities of governance activities. Based on an analysis of approximately 200 government, private firm, and news media documents, it is demonstrated that private firms played a very significant role in shaping solid waste management on Maui, and were able to introduce their own desired modes for governing solid waste management that supplanted the preferences of State and County entities. In making this addition to the original modes of governing framework, it is argued that differences in both legal authority over and functional proximity to the practices and processes of solid waste management on Maui spurred the deployment of and competition between multiple modes of governing solid waste management there, as well as the eventual entry of private firms into the solid waste management process. Ultimately, the fragmentation of solid waste management practices on Maui has resulted in a somewhat ambivalent outcome for the natural environment. As such, this study adds to growing literatures examining both solid waste management and environmental policy issues.
A variety of factors shape environmental policy and governance (EPG) processes, from perceptions of physical ecology and profit motives to social justice and concerns with landscape aesthetics. Many scholars have examined the role of values in EPG, and demonstrated that attempts to incorporate (especially) non-market values into EPG are loaded with both practical and conceptual challenges. Nevertheless, it is clear that non-market values of all types play a crucial role in shaping EPG outcomes. In this article we explore the role of nostalgia as a factor in EPG. We examine literatures on environmental values, governance and affect in light of their relationships with environmental policymaking, first as a means to decide whether or not nostalgia can be rightly described as an 'environmental value'. We suggest that, from a philosophical perspective, nostalgia is by itself environmentally neutral, and is not usefully described as a 'value'. However, as an emotional state that longs to preserve or recover something of the past - whether fading or no longer present - that is fondly remembered, nostalgia does represent a potentially strong 'motivator' for EPG decisions. Despite this somewhat ambivalent assessment of nostalgia as an environmental value, we argue that nostalgia and nostalgic longing to return to 'better' or 'cleaner' environments can lead to potentially significant impacts on ecosystems and landscapes, both positive and negative depending on what it is that people want to preserve or restore. Thus we conclude that we neglect understanding the role of nostalgia in EPG at our peril: first, because preservationist goals have always been an important part of environmental responsibility; and second, because many people will be swayed regarding environmental action through a mobilisation of nostalgia by political leaders and interest groups alike. We end our article with suggestion of avenues for further empirical investigation.
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