The Green Experiment: Cities, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Sustainability

Abstract

Green infrastructure is a unique combination of economic, social, and environmental goals and benefits that requires an adaptable framework for planning, implementing, and evaluating. In this study, we propose an experimental framework for policy, implementation, and subsequent evaluation of green stormwater infrastructure within the context of sociotechnical systems and urban experimentation. Sociotechnical systems describe the interaction of complex systems with quantitative and qualitative impacts. Urban experimentation-traditionally referencing climate change programs and their impacts-is a process of evaluating city programs as if in a laboratory setting with hypotheses and evaluated results. We combine these two concepts into a singular framework creating a policy feedback cycle (PFC) for green infrastructure to evaluate municipal green infrastructure plans as an experimental process within the context of a sociotechnical system. After proposing and discussing the PFC, we utilize the tool to research and evaluate the green infrastructure programs of 27 municipalities across the United States. Results indicate that green infrastructure plans should incorporate community involvement and communication, evaluation based on project motivation, and an iterative process for knowledge production. We suggest knowledge brokers as a key resource in connecting the evaluation stage of the feedback cycle to the policy phase. We identify three important needs for green infrastructure experimentation: (i) a fluid definition of green infrastructure in policy; (ii) maintenance and evaluation components of a green infrastructure plan; and (iii) communication of the plan to the community.

Adoption and Use of Low-Carbon Technologies: Lessons from 100 Finnish Pilot Studies, Field Experiments and Demonstrations

“…Drawing on Schot and Geels [1], Fevolden et al [4], Berg et al [8], Heiskanen et al [3], Rose [15], Lovell [16], and Chini et al [17], the following aims and purposes can be identified:…”

“…While recognizing the socio-political aspects of experimentation, the strategic experimentation literature foregrounds the techno-scientific and cognitive dimensions of learning, for example highlighting the need for aggregation of lessons learned in local experiments in order to support the emerging niche trajectories [9,17]. In contrast, the perspective of learning by doing, using and interacting (DUI) highlights the importance of tacit, embodied and local knowledge and skills developed in interaction [4,25].…”

Sustainability

“…A framework to evaluate green infrastructure is introduced based on a policy feedback cycle (PFC) and used to assess the GI programs of 27 municipalities in the United States. Results specify that GI plans should include, "community involvement and communication, evaluation based on project motivation, and an iterative process for knowledge production" (Chini et al, 2017).…”

A Stakeholder‐Science Based Approach Using the National Urban Water Innovation Network as a Test Bed for Understanding Urban Water Sustainability Challenges in the U.S.

“…The sociotechnical transition studies literature provides useful perspective on specific social, institutional, and political mechanisms behind how societies undergo transitions to sustainability (Chini et al, ; Geels, ; Geels & Schot, ; Lawhon & Murphy, ). Many researchers apply the multilevel perspective (MLP) to describe sociotechnical transitions, which ranges across scales from niche, to regime, to landscape, and includes multiple actors (Geels, ; Geels & Schot, ; Lawhon & Murphy, ).…”

“…Many researchers apply the multilevel perspective (MLP) to describe sociotechnical transitions, which ranges across scales from niche, to regime, to landscape, and includes multiple actors (Geels, ; Geels & Schot, ; Lawhon & Murphy, ). In this perspective, technological niches represent the microlevel where innovations form and diffuse, landscapes are the broader social and institutional framework where potential changes occur, and regimes are the “existing sociotechnical pattern throughout society” providing the setting where research and policy exchanges occur (Chini et al, ; Geels & Schot, , p. 105). Transitions occur through interactions between processes across the three levels: “(a) niche‐innovations build up internal momentum, through learning processes, price/performance improvements, and support from powerful groups, (b) changes at the landscape level create pressure on the regime, and (c) destabilization of the regime creates windows of opportunity for niche‐innovations,” (Geels & Schot, , p. 400).…”