An official website of the United States government
ABSTRACT Amidst 21st‐century climate‐related threats, municipal elected officials (EOs) may outsource public services to third parties to avoid the political costs of adopting “unpopular” sustainability policies—a strategy known as political decoupling. However, decoupling raises accountability concerns and may not improve sustainability, leading some municipalities to “recouple” services. To help understand the political impacts of these decisions, we assess how public scrutiny toward EOs in US municipalities changes after varying degrees of coupling in the water provision sector (i.e., how much service delivery shifts away from or toward municipal oversight). Analysis of local media coverage shows public attention toward EOs decreases after higher degrees of decoupling and recoupling, public opinion becomes polarized toward EOs after decouplings, and the public links sustainability‐related issues to EOs after high degrees of decoupling. The results highlight how reforming public services relates to political accountability‐related factors and raise critical questions about the political decoupling strategy.
more »
« less
The Municipal Drinking Water Database
Drinking water services in the U.S. are critical for public health and economic development but face technical, political, and administrative challenges. Understanding the root cause of these challenges and how to overcome them is hindered by the lack of integrative, comprehensive data about drinking water systems and the communities they serve. The Municipal Drinking Water Database (MDWD) combines financial, institutional, demographic, and environmental conditions of U.S. municipalities and their community water systems (CWS). Municipally owned and operated CWS are ubiquitous and play a critical role in ensuring safe, affordable drinking water services for most Americans; they also offer important opportunities for understanding municipal government behavior and decision making. The MDWD is publicly available and will enable researchers and practitioners interested in viewing or tracking drinking water spending, the financial condition of municipal governments, or myriad demographic, political, institutional, and physical characteristics of municipal drinking water systems to access the data quickly and easily. This paper describes the database and its creation, details examples of how the data can be used and discusses illustrative analyses of trends and insights that can be gleaned from the database. Building and sharing more integrated datasets provides new opportunities for asking novel questions about the drivers and consequences of local decision making about drinking water.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10491803
- Editor(s):
- Herrera, Manuel
- Publisher / Repository:
- PLOS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS Water
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2767-3219
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e0000081
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Infrastructure crises are not only technical problems for engineers to solve—they also present social, ecological, financial, and political challenges. Addressing infrastructure problems thus requires a robust planning process that includes examination of the social and ecological systems supporting infrastructure, alongside technical systems. An integrative Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS) analysis of infrastructure solutions can complement the planning process by revealing potential trade-offs that are often overlooked in standard procedures. We explore the interconnected SETS of the infrastructure problem in the US through comparative case studies of green infrastructure (GI) development in Portland and Baltimore. Currently a popular infrastructure solution to a wide variety of urban ills, GI is the use and mimicry of ecological components (e.g., plants) to perform municipal services (e.g., stormwater management). We develop the ecological-technological spectrum—or ‘eco-techno spectrum’—as a framing tool to bridge all three SETS dimensions. The eco-techno spectrum becomes a platform to explore the institutional knowledge system dynamics of GI development where social dimensions are organized across ecological and technological aspects of GI, exposing how governance differs across specific forms of ecological and technological hybridity. In this study, we highlight the knowledge system challenges of urban planning institutions as a key consideration in the realization of innovative infrastructure crisis ‘fixes.’ Disconnected definition and measurement of GI emerge as two distinct challenges across the knowledge systems examined. By revealing and discussing these challenges, we can begin to recognize—and better plan for—gaps in municipal planning knowledge systems, promoting decisions that address the roots of infrastructure crises rather than treating only their symptoms.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT The cost of basic drinking water services has implications for affordability, investment capacity, and public health. The fragmentation of drinking water services in the United States makes it difficult to reliably track and compare what customers pay for basic drinking water services. This paper uses a new, national dataset to examine the social, political, environmental, and institutional drivers of the cost of basic drinking water services, measured as the cost to households of 6000 gal of water per month. We find basic drinking water service costs vary widely across the United States. Costs are generally higher in smaller and more liberal cities and lower in places that rely on groundwater sources. Our findings provide a unique national perspective on variation in, and drivers of, the cost of basic water services and can inform efforts to improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of drinking water services in the United States.more » « less
-
Small community water systems (CWS) often have difficulty maintaining high-quality service provision. Part- nerships can help alleviate these problems, yet may not be attainable or pursued. This research examines the perspectives of U.S. state agencies with drinking water primacy regarding the benefits of water systems part- nerships and the points of leverage that can induce water systems to partner. It assesses the benefits, drawbacks, and barriers to five common forms of partnerships as well as the approaches states can use to encourage small CWS partnerships. Findings indicate that while partnerships hold significant potential, in many contexts, there are inherent limitations to their formation.more » « less
-
Demographic data pertain to people’s identities and behaviors. Analyses of demographic data are used to describe patterns and predict behaviors, to inform interface design, and even institutional decision-making processes. Demographic data thus need to be complete and correct to ensure they can be analyzed in ways that reflect reality. This study consists of interviews with 40 people in STEM and addresses how causes of relational (dis)trust in demographic data collection contribute to pervasive problems of missing and incorrect responses and disobliging responses (e.g., non-disclosure, false responses, attrition, and hesitancy to use services). The findings then guide a preliminary set of recommendations for cultivating trustworthiness based on recent developments in trust theory and designing for responsive and trustworthy systems. Specifically, we explore how demographic questionnaire design (e.g., item construction and instructions) can communicate necessary reassurances and transparency for users. The ongoing research provides interview-based recommendations for improving the quality and completeness of demographic data collection. This research adds to other recommendations on improving demographic questionnaires.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000081
