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Messaging and Forecasting Hypoxia for Long Island Sound
Citation:
Canfield, Katherine, C. Sullivan, J. Hagy, AND K. Mulvaney. Messaging and Forecasting Hypoxia for Long Island Sound. Messaging and Forecasting Hypoxia in Long Island Sound Workshop, New York City, NY, May 23, 2023. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/259, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, is an important nutrient-related water quality issue that impacts aquatic life in lakes and coastal waters globally. Hypoxia is well studied in Long Island Sound, an estuary of national significance, and has been the focus of successful environmental management for decades. Communicating about hypoxia across partners and with affected communities remains challenging. Maintaining interest and engagement over time to initiate or sustain restoration of water quality improvements, or “messaging on slow impacts,” presents a unique challenge. To improve effective communication related to hypoxia, this report summarizes findings and recommendations from a one-day workshop focused on this challenge in Long Island Sound that included stakeholders working at the science-public interface. From this workshop, participants identified potential audiences, messages, and web tool design characteristics, and discussed the challenges of conveying the urgency of action around hypoxia. The recommendations from this report could be applied by scientists working to address nutrient challenges through improved science communication across the Long Island Sound watershed, and beyond.
Description:
Hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, is an important nutrient-related water quality issue that impacts aquatic life in lakes and coastal waters globally. Although low oxygen can occur naturally, the extent and severity of hypoxia is increased by anthropogenic nutrient loads resulting from wastewater, stormwater, agricultural runoff, atmospheric deposition, and other sources. Hypoxia is well studied in Long Island Sound, an estuary of national significance, and has been the focus of successful environmental management for decades. Despite scientific understanding of hypoxia, there is limited concern or engagement about this water quality impairment among users of the Sound that are not scientists, necessitating improved communication approaches. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development and Region 2 held a workshop on May 23, 2023, to understand communication needs for hypoxia in Long Island Sound. The express purpose of the workshop was, "working with people at the interface of science and practice to identify the best engagement approaches to use hypoxia forecasting in improving public awareness about hypoxia in Long Island Sound." The Messaging and Forecasting Hypoxia in Long Island Sound workshop shared information on the early work on the hypoxia forecasting model for Long Island Sound and elicited perspectives of attendees on key audiences and design for related communication products. Workshop participants were selected based on their expertise at the interface of Long Island Sound environmental challenges and stakeholder engagement. Through structured presentations and small and large group discussions participants shared their knowledge and perspectives on the best approaches for communicating hypoxia and forecasting in Long Island Sound. This workshop proceedings presents the motivation for the workshop, the structure of the event, and the findings from the day’s discussions related to audiences, key messages, and recommended product design.