Academic Publications

Though scientists agree that eutrophication is a key driver of HABs in Lake Erie, the role of nitrogen is still the subject of debate. The problem is twofold: (1) uncertainty in the specific causes of HABs can lead to inappropriate management solutions, and (2) managing a cross-boundary watershed requires collaboration and agreement on apt solutions from multiple stakeholders as well as many U.S. states and Canadian provinces. In our study, we interviewed 29 stakeholders actively involved in western Lake Erie’s watershed. We analyzed the stakeholders’ values, attitudes, and policy preferences to understand their differences, similarities, and their effects on management decisions. We found that stakeholders agree on the urgency of the problem and the necessity for increased nutrient management in Lake Erie’s western basin. Furthermore, we found that stakeholders can be represented as distinct clusters based on their values, and these value-based clusters are associated with different policy preferences. The different opinions and preferences of these value clusters span across stakeholder sectors and may affect efforts toward policy change. Stakeholders often question the feasibility and effectiveness of existing policies and policy plans. The findings shed new light on the relationship between stakeholder type and environmental values, attitudes, and policy preferences. Collaboration on HABs in Lake Erie will require open lines of communication both to improve policy and to cultivate trust among the multiple parties in this diverse watershed.

There are many definitions of resilience, and a growing body of literature suggests that how resilience is defined may have significant consequences for planning and policy making outcomes. In the Great Lakes Region, resilience is gaining increasing attention from planners and policy makers in response to more frequent disruptions to social-ecological systems and built environments from coastal hazards. There has not yet been extensive research into how resilience is being defined in practice and how these definitions can affect geographies of risk and resilience and contribute to varying ecological, social, cultural, political, and economic outcomes. In this paper, we analyzed how stakeholders engaged in natural resource management activities within the Laurentian Great Lakes coastal environment define resilience and discuss the implications for planning and policy making through a critical geography and critical space lens. We systematically reviewed gray literature published by these stakeholders to document definitions of resilience. We then applied a 5Ws + H of resilience framework—resilience for whom, what, where, when, why, and how—to develop descriptive statistics and qualitatively analyze the definitions, considering the potential implications for ongoing regional planning and policy making efforts. Our analysis revealed a large degree of variation in the definitions, although we note two distinct gaps. We discuss how these gaps could affect ongoing regional planning and policy making efforts, and we lay out four research needs to inform planning and policy making going forward.

The impact of urbanization on biodiversity has been well documented, yet research into the complex dynamics of ecological and evolutionary processes in urban areas is still in its infancy. When novel research challenges emerge, a horizon scan exercise is an integrated approach that brings together global interdisciplinary-minded individuals to identify future research questions that can influence new collaborations and funding agenda. Our horizon scan identified 30 questions for future research in urban evolutionary ecology covering themes in fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes, temporal and spatial scales, sustainability, climate change, sociopolitical and ethical considerations, and innovation in technology.

Safe, affordable, reliable drinking water is central to public health, strong communities, economic development, and a healthy environment. Drinking water policy and management tends to rely on regulatory monitoring and compliance, but the performance of drinking water systems is underpinned and driven by social, financial, and physical systems. When these systems are eroded or poorly functioning, drinking water systems are vulnerable to performance failures of many kinds. We develop a multidimensional approach to measuring drinking water vulnerability using composite indices and apply these methods to large (greater than 50,000 residents) cities of the Great Lakes region, an area grappling with pressing drinking water challenges. Using publicly available data, we calculate drinking water vulnerability scores for 105 cities in the region using three different index development methods. We find that there are differences in drinking water vulnerability scores between states and within metropolitan areas. We also find these vulnerability index measures are related to performance outcomes, specifically violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The index provides new, adaptable methods and insights into drinking water system vulnerability for scholars, decision makers, and stakeholders.

State interventions during municipal financial emergencies can play a critical role in ensuring the continuation of public services and preventing municipal bankruptcy but have often been applied unevenly. Using a case study of municipal takeovers in Michigan, we examine their predictability based on financial stress indicators and effects on drinking water services. We find financial stress alone does not explain takeover decisions, and that a city’s reliance on state revenue and racial and economic context play a role. Cities that have been taken over are more likely to experience drinking water privatization and rate increases than similarly financially stressed cities. The malleable definition of financial distress and discretion in implementation allow takeover policies to be applied unevenly, creating additional challenges for already distressed communities. Decision makers should seek alternative approaches to municipal financial emergencies that address underlying causes while minimizing the potential for bias and significant changes to public services.

Hughes, Sara. 2020 “Flint, Michigan and the Politics of Safe Drinking Water in the US,” Perspectives on Politics

Flint’s drinking water crisis has brought renewed – and needed – attention to the importance of safe drinking water in the United States. The Flint water crisis was the result of a confluence of factors operating at multiple scales in time and space. My aim is to draw out more explicitly the role of policy, and specifically rationalized policy, in incentivizing and allowing the mistakes and decisions that most proximately led to the Flint water crisis. I build on and extend existing analyses of the Flint water crisis, drawing on thirteen semi-structured interviews and publicly available reports, testimony, newspaper articles, and secondary data. My analysis brings to the fore the particular vulnerability to the marginalizing effects of rationalized policy and its implementation of poor and minority communities in the United States, and it reveals the stickiness and entrenchment of these rationalized policies. The response to the Flint water crisis, both in Michigan and nationally, has centered on renewed commitment to risk-based standards and rulemaking for safe drinking water protections, and maintains interventionist approaches to municipal financial distress. I discuss important alternatives that are emerging and indicate areas for future research on the politics of safe drinking water.

Hughes, Sara. 2020. “Principles, Drivers, and Policy Tools for Just Climate Change Adaptation in Legacy Cities,” Environmental Science and Policy

Climate change adaptation presents an opportunity for legacy cities to address growing social, racial, and economic inequality, or engage in just climate change adaptation. While the importance of just and equitable climate change adaptation is well understood, the policy and politics that underlie such efforts are less well understood. This paper focuses on the development of just climate change adaptation strategies in legacy cities, particularly those in the Great Lakes region of the U.S., where the challenges and opportunities for climate change adaptation are particularly high. Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio are used as illustrative case studies. These cities are two of the only two legacy cities of the Great Lakes region to have developed formal and explicit adaptation plans, and foregrounded justice and equity early in the process. A review of planning documents, and interviews with key stakeholders, in the two cities are used to identify the components of justice being included in climate change adaptation planning, the drivers or motivations for foregrounding justice in their adaptation planning, and the policy tools being used or developed to reach these goals. The findings reveal an awareness among stakeholders and decision makers in both cities of the importance of addressing inequality in climate change adaptation, some attention to justice principles in the adaptation plans themselves, and a diverse set of policy tools emerging to support this work. Importantly, despite relatively modest ambitions for climate change adaptation, both cities face implementation challenges that are likely to be common among legacy cities of the region.

Hughes, Sara, Sarah Giest, and Laura Tozer. 2020. “Accountability and Data-Driven Urban Climate Governance,” Nature Climate Change

The use of increasingly large and diverse datasets to guide urban climate action has implications for how, and by whom, local governments are held accountable. This Review focuses on emerging dynamics of accountability in data-driven urban climate change governance. Current understandings of the implications for accountability are examined based on three common rationales for prioritizing data-driven decision-making: standardization, transparency and capacity building. We conclude that the trend toward data-driven urban climate governance can incentivize city governments to prioritize narrowed metrics and external interests, inhibiting the broader transformations required to realize climate change goals. We offer priorities for research at the intersection of data-driven climate governance and the accountability of city governments.

Hughes, Sara. 2020. “Local Environmental Policy in the United States,” in David Konisky (Ed) Handbook of US Environmental Policy, Edward Elgar Publishing

City governments are key players in U.S. environmental policy. Policy decisions made at the local level shape people’s relationship to important natural resources such as water and forests, influence environmental quality locally, and can scale up to have regional, national, and global consequences. This chapter reviews the contributions of, and gaps in, scholarship aimed at understanding the forces shaping local environmental policy, including local politics, local institutions and capacities, intergovernmental dynamics, and local problem conditions. It also identifies three emerging issues of concern to both local governments and scholars of local environmental policy: the urgency of addressing environmental justice and inequality; the role of city governments in an era of federal roll backs; and the local implications of global engagement. Attending to the empirical and theoretical challenges associated with local environmental policy in the U.S. will provide much needed insight for scholars and practitioners.

Hughes, Sara and Matthew Hoffmann. 2020. “Just Urban Transitions: Toward a Research Agenda,” WIREs Climate Change

While there are excellent policy and academic foundations for thinking about and making sense of urban climate action and questions of justice and climate change independently, there is less work that considers their intersection. The nature and dynamics of, and requirements for, a just urban transition (JUT)—the fusion of climate action and justice concerns at the urban scale—are not well understood. In this review article we seek to rectify this by first examining the different strains of justice scholarship (environmental, energy, climate, urban) that are informing and should inform JUT. We then turn to a discussion of just transitions in general, tracing the history of the term and current understandings in the literature. These two explorations provide a foundation for considering both scholarly and policy‐relevant JUT agendas. We identify what is still needed to know in order to recognize, study, and foster JUT.