Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities

Increasingly, scholars, policy makers, and others have put forth that governance and management of urban environments requires a consideration of cities as social-ecological systems, necessitating involvement from a broad range of actors. Yet the research on environmental governance and development...

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Main Authors: Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli, Michele Romolini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2023.954870/full
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author Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli
Michele Romolini
author_facet Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli
Michele Romolini
author_sort Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli
collection DOAJ
description Increasingly, scholars, policy makers, and others have put forth that governance and management of urban environments requires a consideration of cities as social-ecological systems, necessitating involvement from a broad range of actors. Yet the research on environmental governance and development of tools to support it is often completed for rather than with those responsible for carrying out the work. We examined a university-led research effort on urban environmental stewardship in Los Angeles (LA), USA. A university urban research center conducted an environmental Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) in Los Angeles County, which draws upon network analysis and GIS to better understand sustainability relationships, opportunities, and gaps. STEW-MAP is intended to be both a research study examining stewardship organizations across sectors, scales, jurisdictions and geographic space, as well as an application providing tools to facilitate collaborative environmental stewardship. We sought to contribute to a better understanding of how the process of STEW-MAP can leverage sustainability for a more relational ecology with cities approach. To evaluate the process of the LA STEW-MAP, we conducted our conceptual analysis of this stewardship tool by examining co-production of knowledge and co-production of place, drawing particularly from workshops with community partners that took place in 2017 and 2018. This article will show that the LA STEW-MAP process can be improved to better operationalize a relational ecology with cities approach. This research contributes to the urban sustainability governance literature by focusing on how the process of the LA STEW-MAP can be a relational model and advance an ecology with cities' approach that captures and leverages multi-scalar interactions.
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spelling doaj.art-beb24496aaab4b0585ac8e11964e7b062023-03-06T05:49:17ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Sustainable Cities2624-96342023-03-01510.3389/frsc.2023.954870954870Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with citiesBemmy Jennifer Maharramli0Michele Romolini1Center for Community Engagement, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesCenter for Urban Resilience, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesIncreasingly, scholars, policy makers, and others have put forth that governance and management of urban environments requires a consideration of cities as social-ecological systems, necessitating involvement from a broad range of actors. Yet the research on environmental governance and development of tools to support it is often completed for rather than with those responsible for carrying out the work. We examined a university-led research effort on urban environmental stewardship in Los Angeles (LA), USA. A university urban research center conducted an environmental Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) in Los Angeles County, which draws upon network analysis and GIS to better understand sustainability relationships, opportunities, and gaps. STEW-MAP is intended to be both a research study examining stewardship organizations across sectors, scales, jurisdictions and geographic space, as well as an application providing tools to facilitate collaborative environmental stewardship. We sought to contribute to a better understanding of how the process of STEW-MAP can leverage sustainability for a more relational ecology with cities approach. To evaluate the process of the LA STEW-MAP, we conducted our conceptual analysis of this stewardship tool by examining co-production of knowledge and co-production of place, drawing particularly from workshops with community partners that took place in 2017 and 2018. This article will show that the LA STEW-MAP process can be improved to better operationalize a relational ecology with cities approach. This research contributes to the urban sustainability governance literature by focusing on how the process of the LA STEW-MAP can be a relational model and advance an ecology with cities' approach that captures and leverages multi-scalar interactions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2023.954870/fullurban environmental stewardshipecology with citiessocial-ecological systemsstewardship mapping and assessmentengagement
spellingShingle Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli
Michele Romolini
Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
urban environmental stewardship
ecology with cities
social-ecological systems
stewardship mapping and assessment
engagement
title Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
title_full Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
title_fullStr Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
title_short Leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
title_sort leveraging environmental stewardship mapping and assessment research as a relational process for ecology with cities
topic urban environmental stewardship
ecology with cities
social-ecological systems
stewardship mapping and assessment
engagement
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2023.954870/full
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