|
Session Title: The Social Context of Water Quality Improvement Evaluation: Issues and Solutions
|
|
Panel Session 107 to be held in Panzacola Section G2 on Wednesday, Nov 11, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
|
|
Sponsored by the Presidential Strand
and the Environmental Program Evaluation TIG
|
| Chair(s): |
| Linda P Thurston, Kansas State University, lpt@ksu.edu
|
| Abstract:
State and Federal agencies support a watershed approach to better address water quality problems in the U.S. and to build capacity of watershed stakeholders to develop and implement effective, comprehensive programs for watershed protection, restoration, and management. This local watershed approach to address water quality problems involves water quality specialists, technical advisors, and local stakeholders such as landowners and county extension agents. Contextual issues are a vital consideration in planning and evaluation for local watershed improvements. Evaluation practitioners have much to offer to this watershed approach. Evaluation is essential to developing, assessing, and improving successful curriculum design, trainings, demonstrations, workshops and conservation practices. Evaluators can address involving stakeholders, developing consumer-friendly evaluation frameworks, building evaluation capacity, and identifying indicators and developing assessment tools. This panel will discuss contextual issues in water quality improvement evaluation and will provide examples of evaluation tools and practices in water quality improvement work.
|
|
Critical Issues in Evaluating Water Quality Programs in the Unique Watershed Context
|
| Bill Hargrove, University of Texas at El Paso, bhargrov@ksu.edu
|
| Linda P Thurston, Kansas State University, lpt@ksu.edu
|
| Christa A Smith, Kansas State University, christas@ksu.edu
|
|
Evaluation is an integral component of water quality improvement. The evaluation of small scale quality improvement initiatives at the watershed level is useful for: identifying and dealing with issues as they arise from the project; monitoring the impact of local projects; comparing local projects to draw lessons; and collecting detailed information as part of larger state- or region-wide water quality evaluations. Evaluations of watershed improvement projects also help those involved in the initiatives to optimize their choice of interventions and use of resources. Many of local, state, and national stakeholders are involved in considering the effectiveness of water quality improvement practices. However, this broad array of stakeholders presents several issues that are critical to evaluating program effectiveness in this unique context. Critical issues include: stakeholder buy-in of the evaluation process; difficulty of collecting relevant data; understanding the complex change processes involved; and building local evaluation capacity.
|
|
|
Developing and Using Social Indicators for Environmental Management
|
| Linda Prokopy, Purdue University, lprokopy@purdue.edu
|
| Ken Genskow, University of Wisconsin Madison, kgenskow@wisc.edu
|
|
Many involved with Non Point Source (NPS) pollution projects have expertise and knowledge necessary to plan, implement, and evaluate their projects' physical and environmental components, yet addressing and evaluating the social and human-dimension components presents new challenges. In response to this situation, EPA Region 5, state environmental agencies, and the CSREES Great Lakes Regional Water Quality Program (GLRWQP) have initiated a project to incorporate a social component into NPS project planning and evaluation for the region. The effort involves an inter-organizational team drawing from EPA, state environmental agencies, land grant universities in the CSREES Great Lakes Region, and others. The team has developed a framework for tracking indicators of individual change, such as knowledge, awareness, capacity, constraints and behavior. The team has entered into a three year pilot phase with the six states in the region. This paper will describe the process for developing and using the indicators.
| |
|
Applying Social Indicators to Water Quality Planning and Evaluation
|
| Ken Genskow, University of Wisconsin Madison, kgensskow@wisc.edu
|
| Linda Prokopy, Purdue University, lprokopy@purdue.edu
|
|
Social indicators are statistics and other measures that enable assessment of the social trends and the human dimensions of programs and program impacts. The use of social indicators for natural resource management is gradually increasing. Efforts include applications for ecosystem management, watershed management, aspects of sustainability, and social impact assessment. Social indicators for natural resources management encompass a variety of issues, including community capacity and activism, community interaction and information flow, demographic information, economic conditions and employment, education, and property and land use. However, while providing important trend data for community and regional settings, many commonly used social indicators relate only indirectly to the primary goals of conservation and resource management programs. This presentation discusses the use of relevant primary social data to inform water quality planning and evaluation efforts. The presentation will outline the conceptual framework applied to the multi-state regional water quality initiative presented in paper 2.
| |
|
Building Evaluation Capacity in Local and State Watershed Improvement Programs
|
| Christa A Smith, Kansas State University, christas@ksu.edu
|
| Linda P Thurston, Kansas State University, lpt@ksu.edu
|
| Bill Hargrove, University of Texas at El Paso, bhargrov@ksu.edu
|
|
Building capacity at local and state levels, and providing data for decision-making and management practices, is crucial to the sustainability of watershed improvement programs. In particular the biological and social aspects of watershed improvement programs must be understood to replicate successful practices and provide accountability to stakeholders. The need to design and test an evaluation framework that will enable stakeholders to document and report on the contributions of watershed improvement programs is vital to achieving this goal. This paper will explore the development of an evaluation toolkit with comprehensive assessment methods for analyzing the biophysical and social impacts of watershed programs.Evaluation questions used to guide the development of the framework were:
- What are the biophysical and social indicators of watershed program activities?
- What is the impact of watershed programs on short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes?
- How can stakeholders assess the value of watershed program investments?
| |