NRES Departmental Seminar by Dr. Linda Prokopy, Purdue University
Title: Creating Positive Change in Watersheds: Understanding the Role of Social Indicators and Catalyst Events
While an extensive literature exists about watershed groups, little is known about what triggers the formation of these groups or what causes individuals to get engaged. In this presentation, I hypothesize that certain events interact with existing conditions in a location to catalyze the formation of an individual or collective response to water quality threats. Few events, or undesirable conditions, gravitate to the level of a catalyst event. In some cases, two events which may appear to be similar will lead to very different outcomes in terms of corresponding actions. For example, news reports about a fish kill in one stream may mobilize farmers to work together to implement conservation practices. News reports about a fish kill in another stream may lead to no corresponding action. I argue that one reason for the differing responses is baseline levels of awareness, attitudes, constraints and behaviors related to water quality. With a team of researchers from across the Midwest, I have been collecting data on these "social indicators" in 30 watershed projects over the last few years. These data show that baseline levels of the social indicators can be quite different. In this presentation, I will discuss how these baseline conditions may influence whether an event rises to the level of a catalyst. I will also present a typology of events that focus attention on water resources and can lead to changes in conservation behaviors and management decisions. Collectively these two topics will help the audience understand ways to create positive change in watersheds.
Dr. Prokopy is an Associate Professor of Natural Resources Social Science in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. Her research, extension and teaching largely focus on the social dimensions of watershed management. She is co-leader of a regional initiative to develop a suite of social indicators for watershed projects in the Midwest. She is also Project Director of a USDA-NIFA funded project, Useful to Usable (U2U), that aims to increase the use of climate information by corn producers across the Corn Belt.
Dr. Prokopy is hosted by Dr. Courtney Flint. If you are interested in meeting with the speaker, please contact Courtney at cflint@illinois.edu.
