Collaborative Research: The Policy Geography of Environmental Risk

合作研究：环境风险的政策地理学

• 批准号: 1551617
• 负责人: David Konisky
• 金额: $ 8.72万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1551617&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Policy; Geography; Environmental

Scholars of U.S. environmental policy have long recognized that subnational institutions can influence policy implementation, but there has been virtually no attention given to the specific role of sub-state pollution control agencies' regional offices in carrying out federal laws. This is a major oversight that may substantially affect our understanding of how political, economic, and administrative factors influence the government's management of environmental risks. In this project, the research team uses a new approach to examine how overlapping administrative, political, and environmental problem boundaries shape the distribution of policy outputs and outcomes. They term this approach policy geography, and argue that it can induce governance challenges in the form of delegation problems, coordination dilemmas, and inequitable policy delivery, each of which has important implications for the management of environmental risks. Using newly-collected, fine-grained institutional data, the team utilizes software ogf geographic informtion systems to map out each of the 50 state's regional office policy geography for implementation of both the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) for 2002-2012. They then combine this information with facility-level data on policy outputs (government inspections and enforcement actions) and policy outcomes (compliance and pollution risks) to test theoretically informed hypotheses on political control, policy coordination, and environmental justice. These tests are conducted using hierarchical linear models to account for the nested structure of the data. The proposed research will benefit ongoing policy efforts to manage environmental risks. The results of this research will inform our understanding of the origins of environmental risk patterns, and enhance our capacity to evaluate policy prescriptions aimed at mitigating unfavorable or uneven risk levels across society. In this sense, the proposal speaks to the core tenants of NSF's mission to "promote the health, prosperity and welfare of its citizens." The risks presented to the public from pollution remain important and substantial. For example, over 150 million Americans currently live in areas that are not meeting air quality standards for at least one major air pollutan), and more than 40,000 bodies of water are deemed "impaired" for failing to meet their use requirements. The CAA and the CWA are the primary safeguards against risks from air and water pollution, and understanding their implementation is critical to assure the effectiveness and fairness of pollution control across society. By examining the effects of different institutional arrangements on policy outcomes, the research can identify opportunities for re-configurations that will yield improved environmental governance.

研究美国环境政策的学者们早就认识到，地方机构可以影响政策的实施，但很少有人关注地方污染控制机构的区域办事处在执行联邦法律方面的具体作用。这是一个重大的疏忽，可能会严重影响我们对政治、经济和行政因素如何影响政府环境风险管理的理解。在这个项目中，研究小组使用了一种新的方法来研究重叠的行政、政治和环境问题边界如何影响政策产出和成果的分配。他们将这种方法称为政策地理学，并认为它可能以授权问题、协调困境和不公平政策交付的形式引发治理挑战，每一个都对环境风险的管理有重要影响。利用新收集的细粒度机构数据，该团队利用ogf地理信息系统软件绘制了2002-2012年50个州的区域办公室政策地理，以实施《清洁空气法》（CAA）和《清洁水法》（CWA）。然后，他们将这些信息与有关政策产出（政府检查和执法行动）和政策结果（合规和污染风险）的设施级数据结合起来，以检验有关政治控制、政策协调和环境正义的理论假设。这些测试使用层次线性模型进行，以解释数据的嵌套结构。拟议的研究将有利于管理环境风险的现行政策努力。这项研究的结果将使我们了解环境风险模式的起源，并提高我们评估旨在减轻整个社会不利或不均衡风险水平的政策处方的能力。从这个意义上说，该提案符合国家科学基金会“促进公民健康、繁荣和福利”使命的核心租户。污染给公众带来的风险仍然是重要和巨大的。例如，超过1.5亿美国人目前生活在至少一种主要空气污染物不符合空气质量标准的地区，超过40,000个水体因未能达到其使用要求而被视为“受损”。《环境保护法》和《环境保护法》是防范空气污染和水污染风险的主要保障，了解它们的实施对确保全社会污染控制的有效性和公平性至关重要。通过考察不同制度安排对政策结果的影响，该研究可以确定重新配置的机会，从而改善环境治理。