This $1.6 million project is a multi-year, interdisciplinary partnership between institutions including the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University, the City University of New York (CUNY), Cornell University, the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, the University of North Carolina, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Rhode Island, and others. Urban, suburban and exurban ecosystems are increasing in area across the U.S. There is significant concern and uncertainty about the environmental performance of these ecosystems, especially the extent to which they export nutrients to receiving waters, and how this net export is related to human behavior. Challenges are especially evident in the management of residential landscapes dominated by grass lawns. This project will apply social science theories related to institutional and behavioral change along with formal economic models of household behavior to address questions about human decision-making related to management of residential ecosystems at multiple scales (parcel, neighborhood, watershed, and municipality). These social investigations will be formally predicated on explicit results from biophysical studies of nitrogen and water fluxes. The project will address questions about how flows of information between biophysical and social science domains, either alone or in combination with other policy changes, can promote or constrain the adoption and effectiveness of measures to improve the environmental performance of urban ecosystems at these multiple scales. Results will help public and private decision-makers better understand how to manage the often negative environmental impacts of lawns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This $1.6 million project is a multi-year, interdisciplinary partnership between institutions including the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University, the City University of New York (CUNY), Cornell University, the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, the University of North Carolina, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Rhode Island, and others. Urban, suburban and exurban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[21],"principal-investigator":[385],"funding-agency":[314],"class_list":["post-1799","research-projects","type-research-projects","status-publish","hentry","tag-past","principal-investigator-robert-j-johnston","funding-agency-national-science-foundation"],"yoast_head":"\n