Linking stormwater Best Management Practices to social factors in two suburban watersheds
Linking stormwater Best Management Practices to social factors in two suburban watersheds
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Date
2018-08-23
Authors
Maeda, P. Kanoko
Chanse, Victoria
Rockler, Amanda
Montas, Hubert
Shirmohammadi, Adel
Wilson, Sacoby
Leisnham, Paul T.
Advisor
Citation
Maeda PK, Chanse V, Rockler A, Montas H, Shirmohammadi A, Wilson S, et al. (2018) Linking stormwater Best Management Practices to social factors in two suburban watersheds. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202638. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0202638
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Abstract
To reduce nutrient pollution in urban watersheds, residents need to voluntarily practice a
range of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs). However, little is known about
the underlying social factors that may act as barriers to BMP implementation. The overall
goal of this study was to better understand barriers to BMP implementation by exploring the
links among resident demographics, knowledge, and behaviors so that appropriate education
can be more effectively developed and targeted. In 2014-2015, a detailed questionnaire
was administered door-to-door to 299 randomly selected households in two sub-watersheds
of the Chesapeake Bay basin to test relationships among resident demographics, knowledge
and attitudes towards water resources and BMPs, and BMP implementation. Multifactor
regression models showed that respondents who had greater knowledge of water
resources and BMPs lived in households that implemented greater numbers of BMPs. In
turn, resident BMP knowledge, or familiarity with BMPs, strongly varied with race and ownership
status, with respondents who identified as Caucasian or within a collection of `Other'
races, and who were home owners, having greater BMP knowledge than respondents who
identified as African American and who were home renters, respectively. Renters and members
of homeowner's associations were also less likely to implement BMPs independent of
knowledge, possibly reflecting perceived or real bureaucratic or procedural barriers to good
stormwater management. Overall, respondents preferred to receive educational materials
on stormwater via pamphlets and YouTube videos. These results suggest that resident
ownership status knowledge is important to determining the number of household BMPs,
and that education outreach should probably target African American and renting households
that have lower BMP knowledge and landlords and administrators of homeowner's
associations using well-planned print and video educational media.
Notes
Partial funding for Open Access provided by the UMD Libraries' Open Access Publishing Fund.