Navigating Institutional Challenges: Design to Enable Community Participation in Social Learning for Freshwater Planning

Social learning is a process suited to developing understanding and concerted action to tackle complex resource dilemmas, such as freshwater management. Research has begun to recognise that in practice social learning encounters a variety of institutional challenges from the shared habits and routines of stakeholders (organised by rules, norms and strategies) that are embedded in organisational structures and norms of professional behaviour. These institutional habits and routines influence the degree of willingness to engage with stakeholders, and expectations of behaviours in social learning processes. Considering this, there has been a call to understand how institutions influence social learning and emergent outcomes. We addresses this by presenting a heuristic for implementing social learning cognisant of institutional context to answer three questions: (i) How institutional influences impact implementation of social learning design; (ii) how implementation of social learning design modifies institutions influencing social learning; and (iii) how these changes in design and institutions together shape social learning outcomes? To answer these questions a freshwater planning exercise was designed, implemented and evaluated as a social learning process with community groups in two New Zealand catchments. Incorporating participatory reflection enabled the project team to modify social learning design to manage institutional influences hindering progress toward outcomes. Findings emphasise that social learning is underpinned by participants’ changing assumptions about what constitutes the institution of learning itself—from instruction to a dynamic, collective and emergent process. Reflecting on these assumptions also challenged participants’ expectations about their own and others’ behaviours and roles in freshwater planning.     

Fecal Coliform Export From Four Coastal North Carolina Areas1

Abstract: Fecal coliform (FC) bacteria in coastal waters impair the use of these waters for shellfish harvesting and recreation. This study was designed to quantify and compare FC levels and export in two coastal watersheds with different land uses. Continuous monitoring of rainfall and discharge at three sites in the Jumping Run Creek watershed and one site in the Pettiford Creek watershed were conducted during a 4.5‐year period. Primary land use in the drainage area of one of the three Jumping Run Creek sites is low density industrial, while the other two are residential. Land use in the Pettiford Creek watershed is managed national forest. Nonstorm or base‐flow grab and flow‐proportional storm‐event samples were collected and analyzed for turbidity, conductivity, suspended sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, and FC. Geometric mean FC levels for the Jumping Run Creek monitoring sites ranged from 593 to 2,096 mpn/100 ml, while the mean level at the Pettiford Creek site was 191 mpn/100 ml. Levels of most other parameters were greater in storm discharge from the Jumping Run Creek sites as compared to Pettiford Creek indicating that pollutant export from a watershed increases with development. Statistical analysis of the monitoring data suggested that FC levels in stormwater samples consistently increased with storm rainfall, but were not consistently correlated with any other parameter, including total suspended solids. Multivariate analysis indicated that the weekly FC export for each of the four sites was lowest during the December‐February quarter. Export was highest during the spring and summer at the Jumping Run Creek sites, while for the Pettiford Creek site, FC export was highest during September‐November. The cause of the seasonal variability was unknown but was thought to be associated with human activity in the watersheds.     

Contaminant Retention Potential of Forested Filter Strips Established as SMZs in the Piedmont of Georgia1

Abstract: It is common practice in the United States and elsewhere to maintain vegetated filter strips adjacent to streams to retain contaminants in surface runoff. Most research has evaluated contaminant retention in managed agricultural field strips, while relatively few studies have quantified retention in forested filter strips, particularly for dissolved contaminants. Plot‐scale overland flow experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of natural forested filter strips established as streamside management zones (SMZs) for retaining phosphorus (P), atrazine, and picloram transported in runoff. Retention was evaluated for five different slope classes: 1‐2, 5‐7, 10‐12, 15‐17, and 20‐22%; two cover conditions: undisturbed forest floor (O horizon intact) and forest floor removed by raking; and two periods with contrasting soil moisture conditions: summer‐dry and winter‐wet season. Surface flow was collected at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 10 m within the filter strip to evaluate changes in solution concentration as it moved through the O horizon and the surface soil horizon mixing zone. On average, a 10 m length of forested SMZ with an undisturbed forest floor reduced initial solution concentration of total dissolved P by 51%, orthophosphate P by 49%, atrazine by 28%, and picloram by 5%. Percentages of mass retention through infiltration of water plus concentration reductions in runoff were 64% for total dissolved P, 62% for orthophosphate P, 47% for atrazine, and 28% for picloram for undisturbed forest floor conditions. Lower retention occurred following forest floor removal, particularly for P. Average dissolved P retention was 16% lower following forest floor removal. For undisturbed sites, differences in retention were more closely related to forest floor depth than to slope or antecedent soil moisture. These results indicate that forested SMZ filter strips provide a significant measure of surface water protection from dissolved P and herbicide delivery to surface water.     

The Arctic Water Resource Vulnerability Index: An Integrated Assessment Tool for Community Resilience and Vulnerability with Respect to Freshwater

People in the Arctic face uncertainty in their daily lives as they contend with environmental changes at a range of scales from local to global. Freshwater is a critical resource to people, and although water resource indicators have been developed that operate from regional to global scales and for midlatitude to equatorial environments, no appropriate index exists for assessing the vulnerability of Arctic communities to changing water resources at the local scale. The Arctic Water Resource Vulnerability Index (AWRVI) is proposed as a tool that Arctic communities can use to assess their relative vulnerability-resilience to changes in their water resources from a variety of biophysical and socioeconomic processes. The AWRVI is based on a social-ecological systems perspective that includes physical and social indicators of change and is demonstrated in three case study communities/watersheds in Alaska. These results highlight the value of communities engaging in the process of using the AWRVI and the diagnostic capability of examining the suite of constituent physical and social scores rather than the total AWRVI score alone.     

Multi-locus DNA fingerprinting supports genetic monogamy in Florida scrub-jays

Extensive behavioural and pedigree data on a colour-marked population of Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) suggested that this cooperatively breeding species is monogamous, with extremely rare exceptions in which males have two mates. We used multi-locus DNA fingerprinting to test these observations by determining genetic parentage. Despite restricted dispersal and high relatedness between behavioural parents and non-breeding members of the group, DNA fingerprints provided sufficient variability to determine parentage unambiguously in almost all cases. We found no evidence of extra-pair fertilisation of females or egg dumping, and confirmed a suspected case of polygyny in which a mother and daughter laid and incubated in the same nest. Our results confirm that detailed behavioural data allow accurate assignment of genetic parentage in this species. In Florida scrub-jays, large territory size may limit opportunities for cuckoldry, and persistent intense competition for limited breeding space may lead to low variance in the quality of established male breeders. These factors would reduce both the opportunity for, and benefits of engaging in extra-pair fertilisations. Delayed dispersal and cooperative breeding in this species have not evolved as avenues for direct reproduction by unpaired individuals. Received: 25 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 26 June 1998     

USING FIELD SCALE MODELS TO PREDICT PEAK FLOWS ON AGRICULTURAL WATERSHEDS1

The goal of this study was to develop a methodology for generating storm hydrographs at a watershed scale based on daily runoff estimates from a field scale model. The methodology was evaluated on a small agricultural watershed using the ADAPT field scale process model. A comparison of observed and predicted peak flows for 11 of the largest events that occurred in a three year period gave r² values of 0.84, 0.82, and 0.81 when the watershed was subdivided into 1, 5, and 10 sub watersheds. However, all other statistical measures improved when the watershed was subdivided into at least five sub watersheds. Guidelines need to be developed on the use of the procedure but it first needs to be evaluated on several watersheds that exhibit a range in sizes, land uses, slopes, and soil properties.     

Neutralization potential determination of siderite (FeCO3) using selected oxidants

Siderite (FeCO3) is commonly found in coal overburden and, when present, can cause interference in the determination of neutralization potential (NP). Under acidic testing conditions, FeCO3 reacts to neutralize acid, which contributes to the NP. However, continued weathering of FeCO3 (oxidation of Fe2+ and hydrolysis of Fe3+) produces a neutral to slightly acidic solution. The effects of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), potassium permanganate (KMnO4), and O2 on the laboratory measurement of NP of siderite samples taken from overburden were examined. All oxidation treatments lowered the NP values of the siderite samples as compared with the standard USEPA method. However, oxidation with H2O2 produced variable results depending on the amount of H2O2 added. Neutralization potential values obtained after oxidation treatments were highly correlated with Mn concentration. Reaction products (i.e., 2-line ferrihydrite) of siderite samples with H2O2 and KMnO4 were not representative of natural siderite weathering. Oxidation with O2 produced the lowest NP values for siderite samples. The reaction products produced by oxidation with O2 most closely represent those intermediate products formed when siderite is exposed to atmospheric weathering conditions. Oxidation with O2 also proved to be the most reproducible method for accurately assessing NP when siderite is present in overburden samples.     

VARIABILITY IN ADJUSTMENT PREFERENCES TO GROUNDWATER DEPLETION IN THE AMERICAN HIGH PLAINS1

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the adjustments and institutions that residents of the American High Plains prefer in coping with the depletion of the High Plains (Ogallaia) aquifer. The authors identify 48 possible adjustments and report on public preferences for them as determined from a mail survey of 956 respondents in 14 counties. For purposes of analysis, the adjustments are categorized into five groups: user practices, management policies, financial incentives and disincentives, technological fixes, and other. Preferences were also determined among five levels of government to enforce each of the adjustments. Adjustments associated with user conservation practices were generally most preferred while financial incentives and disincentives were least favored. Local groundwater management agencies were the most favored level of institution to administer conservation adjustments followed by the state, county, and federal levels. The most preferred option for 20 adjustments was that no agency should be involved. Respondents in agriculturally related occupations showed less support for water conservation laws and gave greater acceptance to the continuance of existing methods. Irrigators viewed the increasing cost of lifting water as a more serious problem than the depletion of groundwater.