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Green Infrastructure through Citizen Stormwater Management: Policy Instruments, Participation and Engagement

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  • Eva Lieberherr

    (Natural Resources Policy Group, ETH, Zurich 8092, Switzerland)

  • Olivia Odom Green

    (Atlantic States Legal Foundation, Syracuse, NY 13204, USA)

Abstract

As in other industrialized countries, many urban water social-ecological systems in the United States are characterized by frequent discharges of contaminated runoff, catastrophic flooding, and near-complete severance of the hydrologic cycle. Recent advancements in stormwater best management practices aim to push urban water social-ecological systems into a more sustainable regime that reconnects the hydrologic cycle and utilizes ecosystem services, such as infiltration and evapotranspiration, to improve the quality of urban and suburban water bodies. Collectively, these approaches are termed green infrastructure. As a decentralized approach, green infrastructure requires implementation on, as well as access to, property throughout a watershed, which poses particular governance challenges for watersheds where most land is held privately. We argue that green infrastructure on private property has a strong potential for creating a more sustainable regime through Citizen Stormwater Management, a participatory form of governance with strong citizen influence and engagement. We develop a classification scheme to assess policy instruments’ degree of government intervention, citizen participation, and engagement. The paper explores how various policy instruments encourage Citizen Stormwater Management across the United States on both public and private property. We then conduct a textual analysis of ten years of publicly available data from Onondaga County, New York (USA) to assess the implementation of applicable policy instruments. Findings indicate that incentive-based (carrots) along with outreach (sermon) policies can play an important role when regulatory instruments (sticks) are lacking.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Lieberherr & Olivia Odom Green, 2018. "Green Infrastructure through Citizen Stormwater Management: Policy Instruments, Participation and Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:2099-:d:153422
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Olivia Odom Green & William D. Shuster & Lee K. Rhea & Ahjond S. Garmestani & Hale W. Thurston, 2012. "Identification and Induction of Human, Social, and Cultural Capitals through an Experimental Approach to Stormwater Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(8), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Florence Metz & Karin Ingold, 2014. "Sustainable Wastewater Management: Is it Possible to Regulate Micropollution in the Future by Learning from the Past? A Policy Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko, 2016. "City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-31, September.
    4. Umberto Martini & Federica Buffa & Sandra Notaro, 2017. "Community Participation, Natural Resource Management and the Creation of Innovative Tourism Products: Evidence from Italian Networks of Reserves in the Alps," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Andrew Jordan & Rüdiger K. W. Wurzel & Anthony Zito, 2005. "The Rise of 'New' Policy Instruments in Comparative Perspective: Has Governance Eclipsed Government?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53, pages 477-496, October.
    6. Olivia Odom Green & William D. Shuster & Lee K. Rhea & Ahjond S. Garmestani & Hale W. Thurston, 2012. "Correction: Identification and Induction of Human, Social, and Cultural Capitals through an Experimental Approach to Stormwater Management, Sustainability 2012, 4 , 1669-1682," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(9), pages 1-1, September.
    7. Andrew Jordan & Rüdiger K. W. Wurzel & Anthony Zito, 2005. "The Rise of ‘New’ Policy Instruments in Comparative Perspective: Has Governance Eclipsed Government?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53(3), pages 477-496, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Falanga & Jessica Verheij & Olivia Bina, 2021. "Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Blal Adem Esmail & Lina Suleiman, 2020. "Analyzing Evidence of Sustainable Urban Water Management Systems: A Review through the Lenses of Sociotechnical Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-45, June.
    3. Erika Allen Wolters & Brent S. Steel, 2021. "Environmental Efficacy, Climate Change Beliefs, Ideology, and Public Water Policy Preferences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Vera Ferreira & Ana Paula Barreira & Luís Loures & Dulce Antunes & Thomas Panagopoulos, 2020. "Stakeholders’ Engagement on Nature-Based Solutions: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-27, January.
    5. Yang Yu & Hui Xu & Xiaohan Wang & Jiahong Wen & Shiqiang Du & Min Zhang & Qian Ke, 2019. "Residents’ Willingness to Participate in Green Infrastructure: Spatial Differences and Influence Factors in Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-15, September.
    6. Anna Porębska & Izabela Godyń & Krzysztof Radzicki & Elżbieta Nachlik & Paola Rizzi, 2019. "Built Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Natural Hazards: Flood Protection and UNESCO World Heritage Site Protection Strategies in Krakow, Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-26, September.
    7. Thomas Beery, 2018. "Engaging the Private Homeowner: Linking Climate Change and Green Stormwater Infrastructure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Shoukai Sun & Yuantong Jiang & Shuanning Zheng, 2020. "Research on Ecological Infrastructure from 1990 to 2018: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-23, March.

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