Class of 2021 (expected), Master of Science in Landscape Architecture
Fostering Community-Engaged Green Stormwater Infrastructure Through the Use of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS)
Co-Advised by Dr. Hong Wu, Travis Flohr, and TimothyKelsey
Project Statement
Rapid urbanization severely affects stormwater quality and quantity. The rainwater and snowmelt running across urban environments flow in high volumes with great velocity, picking up and carrying urban pollutants to nearby waterways. Pursuing a strategy for capital investment in stormwater management infrastructure and to enhance stormwater quality and quantity, communities across the U.S. are seeking further investment in green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to better integrate waterflow into urban infrastructure. GSI restores the landscape’s ecological and hydrological functions while managing stormwater on-site by leveraging the natural processes of soil and vegetation.
As emerging technologies, GSI is still facing various implementation barriers including “uncertainties in cost and performance, lack of engineering standards and guidelines, fragmented responsibilities, lack of institutional capacity, lack of legislative mandate, funding constraints, and resistance to change”. Moreover, cognitive and sociotechnical barriers are known as the most critical barriers against GSI implementation. Such barriers include constructing a comprehensive and meaningful community engagement mechanism that best fits the contextual background of the community, well-suits the nature of the issue, educates the community on the matter of concern, and builds capacity for long-term collaboration. Thus, it is worth evaluating the processes, outcomes, and impacts of the existing applied community engagement mechanisms for GSI development to measure to what extent such goals are met.
Evaluation of the applied mechanisms enables us to measure to what extent the goals are met, compare achievements across various applied mechanisms, and identify potentials for enhancements. The pursue of conducting this research is to provide an enhanced community-engaged GSI framework; by identifying the most appropriate engagement mechanisms for GSI development and integrating Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) as an interactive technology-facilitated engagement platform that best accommodates the contextual background of the community, educates the community on the matter of concern, and builds capacity for long-term collaboration. To pursue the objectives, this study first, employs aqualitative case study and survey methodology. Using deductive coding analysis, currently applied community engagement mechanisms for GSI development will be identified and the processes, outcomes, and impacts of each mechanism will be evaluated. The results recognize each mechanism’s strengths, weaknesses, and potentials for enhancements. Second, a series of key informant interviews with experts in community engagement, PGIS, and GSI will be conducted to collect more in-depth insights about the survey results and to identify potentials for integration of PGIS tools as part of a comprehensive community-engaged GSI development framework.
Adib, M., & Wu, H. (2020). Fostering Community-Engaged Green Stormwater Infrastructure Through the Use of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS).Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 549-557.
