Urbanization is a landscape change that drastically alters biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles. Green infrastructure is often looked to as a solution to manage many urban environmental challenges that accompany urbanization. While green infrastructure has demonstrated potential effectiveness to meet these challenges by providing ecosystem services, there has been little empirical work to evaluate the provision of ecosystem services in cities. Moreover, the implementation of green infrastructure is potentially hindered by a lack of understanding of the decision making and governance processes around the adoption of green infrastructure in cities. In this presentation, we discuss an interdisciplinary project that investigates the ecological and decision-making dimensions of green infrastructure in Tucson, Arizona, USA. We use ecosystem services as a nexus to understand what is possible and what is practical with respect to green infrastructure implementation. In this presentation we focus on answering the question, do stakeholder perceptions and practices relating to ecosystem services of green infrastructure differ? We address this question with: (1) a survey instrument targeted at environmental decision makers and urban design and planning practitioners in Tucson, AZ, and (2) a series of science-policy dialogues that use participant modeling approaches.
Results/Conclusions
We observed convergences and differences in stakeholder perceptions of green infrastructure that are key to adoption and practice. Stakeholders are generally in good agreement on the critical environmental issues facing Tucson, which include, prioritizing water sustainability and a need to mitigate urban heat islands. Stakeholders also are in agreement about water harvesting approaches that are an effective tool to meet these environmental challenges. They have a strong demand for ecosystem services related to water sustainability and local climate mitigation; however, stakeholders representing different sectors prioritize different services. In science-policy dialogues with stakeholders from different sectors, participants developed conceptual maps that are then used to reflect the knowledge systems that inform green infrastructure prioritization and practice. Conceptual maps differed in the degree of connections and factors depicted, and differences emerge between groups that reflect the types of processes and factors viewed as critical for supporting green infrastructure adoption. Our results shed light on potential conflicting goals as well as points of synergy in the decision making process. The ecosystem services of green infrastructure are a nexus and a socio-ecohydrologic hotspot that enables connectivities in urban ecosystems and can foster the improvement urban environments.