HSD: Exploring the Determinants of Household Environmental Behavior

随着城市成为世界上大多数人口的家园，了解影响城市环境行为的因素变得越来越重要。由于大多数城市环境污染不是来自特定的点，而是来自更广泛的领域，因此任何减轻污染的尝试都需要了解影响个人和机构环境决策的因素。家庭通过小区层面的选择影响水质，包括草坪和花园管理、灌溉、施肥和农药施用，以及通过设计其景观特征。承担这项多学科研究项目的研究人员将调查马里兰州巴尔的摩市住宅草坪和花园管理行为的空间和社会模式和控制。他们将研究这些环境行为是如何在空间上分布的，以及它们与社区水平特征的关系，包括社会经济学、生物物理属性和与土地治理相关的社会动态。为了解决这些问题，研究人员将采用从空间生态系统和社会科学的方法和见解中提取的混合方法，包括将空间统计应用于住户调查数据和高分辨率遥感图像分析居住模式和地块特征。这些数据将汇集到一个地理信息系统数据库中，对其进行分析，以确定家庭和邻里特征在多大程度上预测家庭环境行为。访谈和调查反馈将通过探索这些预测因素运作的机制来补充这一分析。该研究团队代表了社会科学家和生物物理学家的结合。该研究项目将整合生态水文和土壤研究、遥感和土地利用分析、社会学、人文地理学和经济学的观点和方法。该项目将促进政府机构、非营利组织和社区组织在巴尔的摩市区和美国其他城市化地区的研究和教育能力的发展。该项目将为两所大学多个学科的本科生和研究生提供教育和培训机会。调查人员将明确关注以社区为基础的组织的培训、教育和能力发展，以发展可持续的环境草坪和花园护理实践。这个项目将有助于环境政策的发展。该项目开发的数据库和模型将有助于环境政策规划和管理从城市中心到郊区的流域雨水和养分减少和缓解活动。项目调查人员将与现有的巴尔的摩长期环境研究小组合作，该小组由国家科学基金会赞助。研究人员将通过会议演讲和面向不同受众（包括科学家、政府官员和普通公众）的书面材料，更广泛地传播研究结果。2007财年美国国家科学基金会（nsf）人类与社会动力学（HSD）竞赛的一个奖项支持该项目。所有NSF理事会和办公室都参与了HSD竞赛和HSD奖项组合的协调管理。

As cities become home to the majority of the world's population, understanding the factors that influence urban environmental behaviors is becoming increasingly important. Because most urban environmental pollution does not emanate from specific points but rather comes from broader areas, any attempt at mitigation will require an understanding of the factors that influence individual and institutional environmental decision making. Households impact water quality by choices made at the parcel level, including lawn and garden management, irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application as well as by designing the features of their landscapes. The researchers undertaking this multidisciplinary research project will investigate spatial and social patterns and controls of residential lawn and garden management behavior in Baltimore, Maryland. They will examine how these environmental behaviors are spatially distributed and their relationship to neighborhood-level characteristics, including socioeconomics, biophysical attributes, and social dynamics related to the governance of land. In order to address these questions, the researchers will employ a mix of approaches drawn from the methods and insights of spatial ecosystem and social sciences, including the application of spatial statistics to household survey data and high-resolution, remotely sensed image analysis of residential patterns and parcel characteristics. These data will be assembled into a geographic information systems database, which will be analyzed to determine to what extent household versus neighborhood characteristics predict household environmental behavior. Interview and survey responses will complement this analysis by exploring the mechanisms through which these predictors operate.The research team represents a combination of social and biophysical scientists. The research project will intergrate perspectives and methods from ecohydrology and soil studies, remote sensing and land-use analysis, sociology, human geography, and economics. The project will contribute to the development of research and education capacity of the government agencies, nonprofits, and community-based organizations operating in the Baltimore metropolitan area and other urbanizing regions of the United States. The project will provide education and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in several disciplines in the two universities. The investigators will focus explicitly on training, education, and capacity development of neighborhood-based organizations as vehicles to develop sustainable environmental lawn and garden care practices. The project will contribute to the development of environmental policy. Databases and models developed in the project will be useful for environmental policy planning and managing watershed stormwater and nutrient reduction and mitigation activities in a settings ranging from the heart of the city to exurban locales. The project investigators will collaborate within the existing Baltimore Long-Term Environmental Research team sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The investigators will disseminate findings more broadly through conference presentations as well as written materials geared toward diverse audiences, including scientists, government officials, and the general public. An award resulting from the FY 2007 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.