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Social and Organizational insight Great Lakes remediation, restoration, and revitalization
Citation:
Williams, K., P. Seelbach, J. Allan, J. Hoffman, AND C. McLaughlin. Social and Organizational insight Great Lakes remediation, restoration, and revitalization. JOURNAL OF GREAT LAKES RESEARCH. International Association for Great Lakes Research, Ann Arbor, MI, , N/A, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2022.09.014
Impact/Purpose:
The impact of this research is to illustrate how understanding the social and organizational dimensions of environmental and social reclamation of formerly industrial and now often degraded waterfront properties throughout Canada and the United States, can help us understand and characterize why environmental benefits may not be evenly distributed.
Description:
This special issue demonstrates how communities, individuals, and organizations engage in environmental cleanup and revitalization throughout the Great Lakes region. Understanding this process is important because there is a revival of communities throughout the Great Lakes region based on ecological restoration and waterfront revitalization (Hartig et al., 2019; Hartig et al., 2020). Understanding the social and organizational dimensions of environmental and social reclamation of their once industrial and now often degraded waterfront properties throughout Canada and the United States, can help us understand and characterize why progress may not be evenly experienced. In some places reclaimed and restored waterfronts host a variety of entities and activities including active and passive recreation, tourist facilities, small businesses, boating and marinas, and new housing (Hartig et al. 2020; Williams & Hoffman 2021). Other places have yet to start the revitalization process and feel left behind because they are trying to address more basic needs (Williams & Hoffman, 2021). The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a US coast-centric, region-wide undertaking where agencies, communities, organizations, and individuals are together engaged in local/community scale program delivery of remediation, restoration, and subsequent community revitalization. While we can measure certain elements of this work (e.g., housing starts and taxes, economic activity, or visitor numbers), we need to better understand how environmental remediation, ecological and social revitalization, institutional and organizational structures, and community capacity are related each other to better enable all coastal communities in the Canadian and US Great Lakes region to deliver social well-being and improved quality of life (Williams et al 2017; Hartig et al. 2020; Williams & Hoffman 2020). We also need to better understand how and to what extent restoration and revitalization actions not only serve ecological and economic value creation, but also enhance social and cultural and community values.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Social and Organizational insight Great Lakes remediation, restoration, and revitalization
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