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Putting it all together to understand remediation, restoration, and revitalization in a community
Citation:
Williams, K., J. Hoffman, T. Angradi, AND D. Bolgrien. Putting it all together to understand remediation, restoration, and revitalization in a community. St. Louis River Summit, Superior, WI, March 05 - 06, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The impact of this research is to explain how research in Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization (R2R2R) has deepened our understanding of the complex relationships between environmental cleanup and community. We illustrate this understanding through a discussion of the concept models and tools we use. Finally, we demonstrate how this knowledge facilitates research that is responsive to community and collaborator goals.
Description:
Communities throughout the Great Lakes are undergoing transformation sites once occupied by large industrial complexes are now home to wildlife habitat and trails. Some of the predominant land uses are now parks and nature-based recreation, tourist and entertainment amenities, and lower-impact industries. Over the past several years, the USEPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) and Mid-Continent Ecology Division have used the term Remediation to Restoration to Revitalization or R2R2R to describe a process of environmental clean-up and community revitalization that leads to the changes in land use described above. This presentation will review the term and explain how the research has developed and deepened our understanding of the complex relationships between environment and community. We will explain some of the theories we have developed, as well as how these theories have facilitated the support of communities and state agencies. The theories and practices utilized in research and practice include a diagram to explain the difference between benefits and ecosystem services, a concept model of the land-water divide in Areas of Concern, and the Neighborhood Model. The ultimate goal of R2R2R research is to create “usable science” to facilitate community and state agency decisions about clean-up and community revitalization. Because we have been studying how this process works in practice through cooperation with the GLNPO, the Region 5 Brownfields program, the City of Duluth and others, this presentation will illustrate how research can be responsive to community and collaborator goals.