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Residential landscapes are essential to the sustainability of large areas of the United States. However, spatial and temporal variation across multiple domains complicates developing policies to balance these systems’ environmental, economic, and equity dimensions. We conducted multidisciplinary studies in the Baltimore, MD, USA, metropolitan area to identify locations (hotspots) or times (hot moments) with a disproportionate influence on nitrogen export, a widespread environmental concern. Results showed high variation in the inherent vulnerability/sensitivity of individual parcels to cause environmental damage and in the knowledge and practices of individual managers. To the extent that hotspots are the result of management choices by homeowners, there are straightforward approaches to improve outcomes, e.g. fertilizer restrictions and incentives to reduce fertilizer use. If, however, hotspots arise from the configuration and inherent characteristics of parcels and neighborhoods, efforts to improve outcomes may involve more intensive and complex interventions, such as conversion to alternative ecosystem types.

 

This is a subset of the data found in Grove and Locke (2018), to be included with: Locke, D.H., Polsky, C., Grove, J. M., Groffman, P. M., Nelson, K.C., Larson, K. L., Cavender-Bares, J., Heffernan, J. B., Roy Chowdhury, R., Hobbie, S. E., Bettez, N., Neill, C., Ogden, L.A., O’Neil-Dunne, J. P. M.. [accepted]. Heterogeneity of practice underlies the homogeneity of ecological outcomes of United States yard care in metropolitan regions, neighborhoods and households. PLoS ONE doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0222630 These data contain answers 2011 survey questions: In the past year, which of the following has been applied to any part of your yard: Water for irrigating grass, plants, or trees? Fertilizers? Pesticides to get rid of weeds or pests? The total household annual income (8 ordinal categories), age of respondent (5 ordinal categories), and the answer to: About how many neighbors do you know by name? (recorded in 5 ordinal categories). Two additional columns are provided to indicate the metropolitan region of the respondent (one of the following six: Phoenix, Los Angeles, Minneapolis - St. Paul, Baltimore, Boston, or Miami) and the degree of urbanicity in that region (Urban, Suburban, or Exurban). See Grove and Locke 2018 for additional details. This research is supported by the Macro- Systems Biology Program (US NSF) under Grants EF-1065548, -1065737, -1065740, -1065741, -1065772, -1065785, -1065831, and -121238320 and the NIFA McIntire-Stennis 1000343 MIN-42-051. The work arose from research funded by grants from the NSF LTER program for Baltimore (DEB- 0423476, DEB-1027188); Phoenix (BCS-1026865, DEB-0423704, DEB-9714833, DEB-1637590, DEB-1832016); Plum Island, Boston (OCE-1058747 and 1238212); Cedar Creek, Minneapolis–St. Paul (DEB- 0620652); and Florida Coastal Everglades, Miami (DBI-0620409). Edna Bailey Sussman Foundation, Libby Fund Enhancement Award and the Marion I. Wright ‘46 Travel Grant at Clark University, The Warnock Foundation, the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, Baltimore and Philadelphia Field Stations, and the DC-BC ULTRA-Ex NSF-DEB-0948947 also provided support. This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875. Anonymous reviewers supplied constructive feedback that helped to improve this paper. The findings and opinions reported here do not necessarily reflect those of the funders of this research. Citations: Grove J.M., Locke, D.H.. (2018). BES Household Telephone Survey. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/5a4fc7bfa199f3d63748f0853ae073a0.