Human Dimensions
As demands on water resources continue to increase, it becomes increasingly important for water quality researchers, educators, outreach professionals, and managers to understand the most significant cause of water quality impairment and improvement - human behavior. Individual, community, and institutional decisions are the driving forces behind changes in water quality for better or worse. The challenge is to combine what we know about water quality stressors and best management practices with what we know about human learning, motivations, values, and the process of behavior change to successfully meet water management goals.
2008 Conference Proceedings: Human Dimensions presentations and posters
2007/2006 CSREES-funded Integrated Research, Education, and Extension projects related to human dimensions:
- Advancing watershed N management at the local level: Incorporating stream reach ecosystem N sinks into a spacial decision support system
- Evaluating watershed health risks through integrated water quality analyses, community capacity assessments, and outreach appraisals
- Community decisions: Community decision support for integrated, on-the-ground nutrient strategies
- Using
social indicators to improve adoption of land management practices
to protect water quality in three Midwestern watersheds
- Targeting
watershed vulnerability and behaviors leading to adoption of conservation
management practices
- Changing
homeowner's lawn care behavior to reduce nutrient losses in New
England's urbanizing watersheds
