HSD: Exploring the Determinants of Household Environmental Behavior

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

As cities become home to the majority of the world's population, understanding the factors that influence urban environmental behaviors is becoming increasingly important. Because most urban environmental pollution does not emanate from specific points but rather comes from broader areas, any attempt at mitigation will require an understanding of the factors that influence individual and institutional environmental decision making. Households impact water quality by choices made at the parcel level, including lawn and garden management, irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application as well as by designing the features of their landscapes. The researchers undertaking this multidisciplinary research project will investigate spatial and social patterns and controls of residential lawn and garden management behavior in Baltimore, Maryland. They will examine how these environmental behaviors are spatially distributed and their relationship to neighborhood-level characteristics, including socioeconomics, biophysical attributes, and social dynamics related to the governance of land. In order to address these questions, the researchers will employ a mix of approaches drawn from the methods and insights of spatial ecosystem and social sciences, including the application of spatial statistics to household survey data and high-resolution, remotely sensed image analysis of residential patterns and parcel characteristics. These data will be assembled into a geographic information systems database, which will be analyzed to determine to what extent household versus neighborhood characteristics predict household environmental behavior. Interview and survey responses will complement this analysis by exploring the mechanisms through which these predictors operate. The research team represents a combination of social and biophysical scientists. The research project will intergrate perspectives and methods from ecohydrology and soil studies, remote sensing and land-use analysis, sociology, human geography, and economics. The project will contribute to the development of research and education capacity of the government agencies, nonprofits, and community-based organizations operating in the Baltimore metropolitan area and other urbanizing regions of the United States. The project will provide education and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in several disciplines in the two universities. The investigators will focus explicitly on training, education, and capacity development of neighborhood-based organizations as vehicles to develop sustainable environmental lawn and garden care practices. The project will contribute to the development of environmental policy. Databases and models developed in the project will be useful for environmental policy planning and managing watershed stormwater and nutrient reduction and mitigation activities in a settings ranging from the heart of the city to exurban locales. The project investigators will collaborate within the existing Baltimore Long-Term Environmental Research team sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The investigators will disseminate findings more broadly through conference presentations as well as written materials geared toward diverse audiences, including scientists, government officials, and the general public. An award resulting from the FY 2007 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.