Green Infrastructure: Lessons in Governance and Collaboration From Tucson

Green stormwater infrastructure: A critical review of the barriers and solutions to widespread implementation

“…Public education campaigns (Conway et al, 2021; Meng & Hsu, 2019), the incorporation of information about GSI into K‐12 and university curriculums (Dhakal & Chevalier, 2017), better signage on installations (Meenar et al, 2020), community forums (Barclay & Klotz, 2019), and better incorporation of university and Extension programming into outreach efforts (Jayakaran et al, 2020) were all cited as potential avenues for inciting greater public engagement with the topic of GSI. Other scholars propose a more ambitious approach: the active incorporation of residents into the design, development, and building of GSI to encourage a heightened sense of ownership of the installations (Everett et al, 2018; Gerlak et al, 2021). However, as noted above, the gaps in research on the social dimensions of GSI suggest the need for caution in assuming that such efforts will necessarily lead to the widespread acceptance of these installations.…”

“…Such approaches have been adopted with promising results in some contexts (Liberalesso et al, 2020; Nickel et al, 2014). For instance, in the desert city of Tucson, USA, a GSI Fund was established in 2019, funded by a surcharge on residents' monthly water bills (Gerlak et al, 2021). The money will be used to incorporate GSI projects into new development across the city, prioritizing installations in low‐income neighborhoods (Gerlak et al, 2021).…”

“…For instance, in the desert city of Tucson, USA, a GSI Fund was established in 2019, funded by a surcharge on residents' monthly water bills (Gerlak et al, 2021). The money will be used to incorporate GSI projects into new development across the city, prioritizing installations in low‐income neighborhoods (Gerlak et al, 2021). While acknowledging such promising efforts, we note that many of these programs are in their very early days, and documentation of their impacts is limited.…”

“…Engaging the local communities and their representatives through active partnerships and collaborative project planning and execution has been proven effective in several cases (Biernacka & Kronenberg, 2018; Cheshmehzangi et al, 2021; Geberemariam et al, 2017; Mumtaz, 2021). Establishing regional watershed‐scale governance organizations to gather local municipalities, share knowledge, and plan collaboratively is another cited solution for environmental stormwater‐related concerns that stretch beyond political and municipal boundaries (Dhakal & Chevalier, 2017; Gerlak et al, 2021). Recruiting champions, especially younger professionals who are open to experimentation with nonconventional pro‐green technical ideas, demonstrating the usefulness, or increasing the usefulness perception in respective institutions, has also been suggested as a solution moving forward (Carlet, 2015).…”

“…Studies show that many stakeholders had to apply innovative solutions to overcome the barriers. The innovative approaches include but are not limited to using different financial mechanisms to support funds for GSI projects (Cousins & Hill, 2021; Rowe et al, 2016), outreach and education campaigns (Baptiste et al, 2015), adjusting municipal ordinances (Nickel et al, 2014), and watershed‐scale multi‐government/stakeholder planning (Gerlak et al, 2021).…”