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INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Adaptive Management for Urban Watersheds: The Slavic Village Pilot Project
In Cleveland, Ohio (shown above) a
dilapidated house next to a vacant
lot (left); a vacant lot post-
demolition (center), and a vacant lot
after extensive post-demolition
debris removal, soil management,
and plantings (right).
Adaptive management is an
environmental management strategy
that uses an iterative process of
decision-making to reduce the
uncertainty in environmental
management via system monitoring.
A central tenet of adaptive
management is that management
involves a learning process that can
help regulated communities achieve
environmental quality objectives.
Adaptive management is the
application of resilience theory and
can be either active or passive. To
develop policy for a system, passive
adaptive management will typically
employ predictive models that are
based on current information to
project possible impacts and options.
The managed system is then
monitored and the results evaluated.
From this information, models are
improved and policies associated
with the system are adapted to the
new information. Active adaptive
management involves testing of
multiple hypotheses about system
management at the same time. In
active adaptive management,
policies are put "at risk" and
managers learn from successful and
failed policies.
The EPA's Slavic Village Pilot
Project is an effort to adaptively
reduce stormwater runoff and
improve water quality in an urban
watershed. The work will be
supported by monitoring programs
and partnerships with stakeholders
that are engaged in an adaptive and
ongoing environmental management
process. This research is an example
of integrating social, economic, and
environmental science perspectives
into sustainable management
approaches that address pervasive
environmental challenges.
Slavic Village Pilot Project
Current consent decree settlements
for violations of the Clean Water
Act (1972) increasingly include
'•*
provisions for redress of combined
sewer overflow (CSO) activity
through hybrid approaches that
incorporate the best of both gray
(high-rate treatment plants, storage
tunnels, etc.) and green
infrastructure (GI) techniques (plant-
soil systems like rain gardens, green
roofs, pervious pavement systems,
etc.). This project is an opportunity
to map out how residential street
level GI can be implemented in
vacant lots.
The project starts at a small scale to
build fundamental knowledge about
how GI can improve on present
hydrologic circumstances. Over the
longer term, this work will address
multiple agendas in the articulation
and monitoring of environmental
justice issues and the provision of
ecosystem services (e.g., pollination,
primary, and secondary
productivity) in urban core areas.
The research will be based upon a
data-driven, collaborative planning
approach that will bring together
governance and citizens in a forum
for field studies of adaptive
management.
The project will use an adaptive
management approach to guide a
green-infrastructure retrofit of a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
EPA600-F11017
June 2011
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neighborhood block located in the
Slavic Village Development
Corporation area (Cleveland, Ohio).
EPA researchers will first gather
hydrology and ecosystem services
data on two neighborhood blocks
(control and treatment). Researchers
will then use this data as a basis for
collaboration with area citizens on a
plan to use green infrastructure (GI)
to contain stormflows on the
treatment block. Continual
monitoring will provide researchers
with feedback on the impact of GI
implementation and suggest where
improvements or modifications may
be made.
Project outcomes may include a
reduction in stormwater volume
contribution to the local CSO,
provisioning of an array of
ecosystem services, increased social
equity around environmental justice
issues, and the possibility of
increased land values. The entire
project centers on managing land for
water conservation and storage,
community engagement for renewal,
and advancing a comprehensive
strategy for urban watershed
management by adjusting the
approach based on field monitoring
data, a core adaptive management
component.
Objectives
The objectives of the Slavic Village
Pilot Project are to:
• Test adaptive management
principles in an urban watershed
• Assess the effectiveness of
green infrastructure in achieving
sustainability goals
• Engage citizens and
stakeholders in a collaborative
process of environmental
management
Project Team
Lead: A. Garmestani, EPA Office of
Research and Development (ORD)
Lead: W. Shuster, ORD
S. Jacobs, ORD
B. Dyson, ORD
S. Wu, ORD
M. Heberling, ORD
B. Demeke, ORD
L. Rhea, ORD
B. Furio, EPA Region 5
Contact
Ahjond S. Garmestani, J.D., Ph.D.,
Office of Research and
Development, 513-569-7856,
garmestani.ahjond@epa.gov
William D. Shuster, Ph.D.,
Office of Research and
Development, 513-569-7244,
shuster.william@epa.gov
Collaborators
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer
District
Slavic Village Community
Development Corporation
U.S. Geological Survey
Ohio EPA
Department of Justice
Ohio State University
Emory University
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Cleveland Metroparks
Cleveland Museum of Natural
History
Publications
Benson, M.H. and A.S. Garmestani.
2011. Can we manage for resilience?
The integration of resilience
thinking into American law.
Environmental Management (In
Press)
Allen, C.R., J.J. Fontaine, K.L. Pope
and A.S. Garmestani. 2011.
Adaptive management for a
turbulent future. Journal of
Environmental Management 92:
1339-1345.
Benson, M.H. and A.S. Garmestani.
2011. Embracing panarchy, building
resilience and integrating adaptive
management through a rebirth of the
National Environmental Policy Act.
Journal of Environmental
Management 92: 1420-1427.
Garmestani, A.S., C.R. Allen and H.
Cabezas. 2009. Panarchy, adaptive
management and governance: policy
options for building resilience. 87
Nebraska Law Review 1036 (invited
symposium).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
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Printed with vegetable-based ink on
paper that consists of a minimum of
50% post-consumer fiber content
processed chlorine free
EPA600-F11017
June 2011
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