Community science最新文献

The majority of households in high-income countries have access to safely managed drinking water, but a significant number do not trust or use their tap water. Much remains unknown about the perceptions and behaviors of millions of people who opt to not drink tap water that meets national guidelines. Given that tap water avoidance is associated with myriad adversities and bottled water generates enormous amounts of waste, information about the drivers of trust in tap water is critical. Therefore, we investigated drinking water perceptions and behaviors in 2020–21 in Evanston, Illinois, a mid-size city on Lake Michigan whose water quality meets or exceeds federal guidelines. In collaboration with a local environmental organization and a university, we conducted community-based participatory research that included surveys (n = 756) and in-depth interviews (n = 52) with a convenience sample of residents. Most (92.6%) respondents reported primarily consuming tap water. 81.2% of survey respondents (n = 749) thought their tap water was safer than or as safe as bottled water. Those who drank primarily bottled water (7.4%) were more likely to identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) or unhoused. BIPOC individuals had 3.4 times the odds of distrusting tap water than white respondents and men were 44% less likely to distrust tap water than women. Adverse experiences with water and low trust in government were also associated with lower trust in tap water safety. These findings suggest that outreach be targeted toward these groups to ensure widespread access to safe and trusted tap water.

Mangrove forests cover coastal areas of the Kutch district in Gujarat, western India. The inhabitants of this area, pastoralists known locally as Maldhari, have used these mangroves for their traditional livelihoods, including the rearing of Kharai camels, whose staple food consists of mangrove leaves, petioles, and associated saline vegetation. However, conservationists have accused these pastoralists of harming the mangrove forests through their grazing practices. Therefore, we analyzed Landsat data to understand how mangrove biomass has changed in this region over the past 33 years under grazing. The results revealed that changes in mangrove leaf biomass exhibited a sinusoidal seasonal trend, with a peak in December, and ongoing growth after the end of the rainy season. However, mangrove leaf biomass increased continuously from 1988 to 2020, with a similar rate of increase before and after 2005, when access to mangrove forests was restricted by the Border Security Force and Forest Department of the region. These results suggest that mangroves have adapted well to the semi-arid climate and that grazing by Kharai camels has not reduced their leaf biomass over the last 33 years. The traditional usage of mangrove leaves by pastoralists has not led to a reduction in mangrove coverage. Our findings confirm the perceptions of local pastoralists, expressed in interviews. Thus, traditional mangrove use ars to promote the sustainable coexistence of mangroves, camels, and herders.

Increasing extreme heat poses challenges to metropolitan areas, such as those areas already experiencing extreme heat in Arizona. Using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework, state and local health departments have looked to expand cooling center networks as one option to build heat resilience. We present a method to pick new locations for cooling centers based on demand and current coverage. Using two locations in Arizona, we highlight differences in workflows and how the resulting information can be incorporated into separate but parallel efforts to reduce heat impacts. We used the Network Analyst Location-Allocation tool in ArcGIS Pro to maximize coverage of cooling centers in each area, so that additional cooling centers are selected to reflect local needs. The input data and parameters of the workflow were co-produced with input from two county health departments and a cooling center working group to better address the unique challenges related to cooling center access. To facilitate the application of this approach to other regions seeking to address heat health inequities, we provide a detailed protocol and a discussion of alternative selections.

This paper assesses how the concepts of social vulnerability and equity are discursively constructed in co-production research settings with a co-created decision support tool. The data was collected during workshops (32 communities represented) and interviews (24 communities represented) with stormwater managers and stakeholders (SMS) working in small cities, counties/parishes, and villages and towns within 100 miles of the US Gulf Coast. Findings from participant observation of workshops show that SMS express similar viewpoints regarding indicators of social vulnerability to climate-related hazards, often defining vulnerable people as less physically mobile or as having few monetary resources. Individuals articulated “community” through a lens of homeownership and often described their relationship to residents as strained. Findings from interviews reveal divergent viewpoints on the imperative and rationale for integrating social vulnerability data into stormwater assessments and planning. Interviews also generated more critical reflection than was present in workshops regarding racial disparities in flood hazard exposure. A key insight from this article is that tools and team composition matter but there is nuance in the degree to which they matter considering a range of contextual factors. The article argues that co-production teams must plan for alternatives and different scenarios given the messiness of co-production in practice and that research is needed to reveal the conditions under which specific tools matter for equity in terms of both process and outcomes.

Environmental justice research driven by academics and policymakers often overlooks the valuable insights and leadership of the communities most impacted by environmental hazards. When institution-led research approaches are employed, inadequate community ownership and limited institutional accountability hinder the effectiveness of environmental public health interventions. In contrast, a community-owned and -managed approach to environmental justice research can guide community members in developing evidence-based interventions. This paper outlines a community-led environmental health assessment survey (sample = 100) and resulting community actions over 6 years (2017–2023) in a Northern California farmworker community with a perceived high prevalence of cancer and exposure to environmental hazards in households, neighborhoods, and job sites. Local resident experts in Knights Landing, CA, documented community risk factors and exposures in collaboration with interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate student-researchers. The survey instrument focused on environmental hazards identified by local resident experts including vehicular and agricultural pollution, occupational pesticide contact, and sun exposure. Survey findings highlighted the need for targeted interventions to reduce environmental health risks, such as academic outreach programs, county investments in public services, and community-led mutual aid initiatives. Despite academic reservations about our non-random sampling method and data collection by local resident experts, our project sparked substantial actions and investments with minimal personnel and financial resources. Local leaders working with student-researchers developed more effective environmental public health interventions through a community-owned and -managed approach that went beyond the efforts of local regulatory and research institutions.

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is known to have adverse health effects and is a growing concern in urban areas. Spatial and temporal variability is difficult to assess with the few air quality stations typically available in cities. As an alternative, tree bark acts as a passive captor on which PM is deposited. Magnetic susceptibility measurements can be used as a proxy indicator to estimate pollution from vehicle sources. We present the citizen science project called Ecorc’Air, in which volunteers collect plane tree bark samples, mainly in Paris, which are then sent to laboratories and used for various measurements. The project has developed since 2016, leading to the production of annual maps that identify variations in magnetic particle concentrations. The correlation between magnetic susceptibility and metal content has been verified using multi elemental analysis. Thanks to these numerous samples, we were able to identify areas with consistently high susceptibility values over time. We also quantified the decrease in susceptibility values with the distance between the tree and the road, as well as the shielding effect of parked cars on pedestrians. We showed trends in susceptibility variations over time along a specific well-sampled road, suggesting that this type of sampling and measurement could be used to quantify variations in metallic pollution at a local scale. Finally, through interviews, we found that there is a growing interest and participation of city dwellers, especially those involved in local associations, to act in favor of environmental research, as well as of municipalities to offer support.

Water utility crews, including those who perform system maintenance and operations at drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities, are experiencing the impacts of changing rainfall characteristics first-hand. These frontline crews have relevant, experiential knowledge about changing climate-related risks and adaptation needs that, to date, are not included in utilities' strategic climate planning or implementation efforts, resulting in critical knowledge systems and action gaps. In this co-production case study with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), a municipal public water utility in Washington State, we use surveys and interviews to document barriers and opportunities for frontline crew engagement to enhance SPU's climate adaptation strategies to extreme rainfall. We find that 66% of crew workers perceive changes to rainfall intensity over the past decade and 59% report responding more to rainfall-related issues. These frontline crews are coping with changes in extreme precipitation by increasing preventative maintenance, working overtime during major storm events, and doing more pre-storm planning and preparation. Crews identified several aspects limiting their ability to respond to and prepare for extreme rainfall. To enhance their adaptive capacity, crews documented needs for infrastructure improvement, workforce facilities improvement, increased access to appropriate personal protective equipment, improved communication and coordination across the utility, and enhanced workforce capacity, including increased staff numbers. Findings suggest that for more effective, equitable, and responsive climate adaptation, water utilities should explicitly solicit and include crews' knowledge and lived experiences in adaptation planning while prioritizing strategies that enhance frontline crews' capacity and working conditions as a form of reciprocal action.

Calls for the co-production of climate knowledge and services are increasingly prominent in research and funding proposals, including within federally funded programs. While co-production has led to more accessible and relevant climate services for frontline communities, scholars have identified numerous barriers to equitable relationships and outcomes within co-production partnerships. In an effort to support the development of climate services through equitable research partnerships, the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, a NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership team, collaboratively designed and launched the Community Climate Resilience (CCR) Grant competition in 2022. The CCR program serves to provide funding and build capacity among community-based organizations (CBOs) responding to climate variability in historically disinvested communities in the urban Northeast, as well as foster co-production partnerships between the organizations and local university-based researchers. This paper assesses the design and implementation of the program based on data collected through a survey of research partners, discussions with key stakeholders, and observation of relevant project meetings. Despite the incorporation of lessons from similar co-production projects, program designers found several persistent impediments to equitable partnerships, including time constraints, funding limitations, and burdensome institutional requirements. We reflect on these challenges and offer strategies for overcoming barriers to equitable partnerships, including streamlining funding pass-through structures, increasing transparency in funding competitions, promoting flexible funding options, and fostering communities of practice among CBOs and university partners. The findings are relevant for researchers and practitioners implementing equity-focused co-production partnerships and small grant programs in climate services and related fields.

Transportation is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and has become a focus for climate policies. Traffic-related air pollution disproportionately affects environmental justice (EJ) communities—neighborhoods that have disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards, but health impact assessments rarely center EJ issues or prioritize the concerns of EJ communities. One explanation for the lack of focus on EJ communities is that both policymakers and academia have often failed to engage these communities. In this paper, academic researchers collaborate with seven EJ organizations in the northeastern US, working with collaboration advisors and facilitators, to design and evaluate potential transportation emissions reduction scenarios using air quality and health benefits modeling tools. We model and estimate the benefits of these scenarios, while working to build collaborative relationships between academic researchers and EJ organizations. The two primary outputs from this process are: quantification of health benefits attributable to emission reduction scenarios of interest to EJ organizations, and enhanced trust and community building between academic researchers and EJ organizations, with reflections on strengths, challenges, and opportunities for future work. We find the largest improvements to health result from scenarios that reduce car and truck traffic. Dialog between academic researchers and EJ organizations reinforce the disconnect between regional-scale models and local community concerns as well as the more general gaps between statistical models and lived experience. Despite these challenges, the collaboration led to more meaningful models and valued insight for community organizations, and we recommend comparable collaborations in other settings where pollution control is being planned and evaluated in EJ communities.

The amount of household waste produced worldwide is increasing every year. In combination with other actions to reduce waste production and improve waste management, community engagement and community-focused programs are needed to motivate the public to change their behavior in such a way that reduces their waste generation and increases the accuracy of waste sorting. It is also helpful for people to become more waste literate to empower them to be part of the solution. The Home Waste Audit (HWA) is a community science activity designed to increase waste literacy and reduce household waste. In the HWA, participants record their waste for a set period of time, research their local waste streams, and complete surveys to share perceptions of household waste habits. Here, we present data from a HWA conducted in 2021 as a case study. Before the audit, 66% of participants underestimated their weekly waste generation. Throughout the HWA, weekly waste count among households decreased by 31%. Participants found purchasing items with less/no packaging and avoiding single-use plastics challenging. Easier changes included learning which items can/cannot be recycled and repurposing waste items. Several changes to waste habits were maintained 1 year after participation. These results demonstrate that the HWA is an effective tool for individuals to be a part of the solution by learning about local waste streams, reducing waste production, and accurately managing their household waste.