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| Titel |
Relationships between environmental governance and water quality in a growing metropolitan area of the Pacific Northwest, USA |
| VerfasserIn |
H. Chang, P. Thiers, N. R. Netusil, J. A. Yeakley, G. Rollwagen-Bollens, S. M. Bollens, S. Singh |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 18, no. 4 ; Nr. 18, no. 4 (2014-04-09), S.1383-1395 |
| Datensatznummer |
250120330
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-18-1383-2014.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| We investigate relationships between environmental governance and water
quality in two adjacent growing metropolitan areas in the western US. While
the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington metro areas share many common
biophysical characteristics, they have different land development histories
and water governance structures, providing a unique opportunity for examining
how differences in governance might affect environmental quality. We
conceptualize possible linkages in which water quality influences governance
directly, using monitoring efforts as a metric, and indirectly by using the
change in the sale price of single-family residential properties. Governance
may then influence water quality directly through riparian restoration
resulting from monitoring results and indirectly through land use policy. We
investigate evidence to substantiate these linkages. Our results showed that
changes in monitoring regimes and land development patterns differed in
response to differences in growth management policy and environmental
governance systems. Our results also showed similarities in environmental
quality responses to varying governance systems. For example, we found that
sales prices responded positively to improved water quality (e.g., increases
in DO and reductions in bacteria counts) in both cities. Furthermore,
riparian restoration efforts improved over time for both cities, indicating
the positive effect of governance on this land-based resource that may result
in improved water quality. However, as of yet, there were no substantial
differences across study areas in water temperature over time, despite an
expansion of these urban areas of more than 20 % over 24 years. The
mechanisms by which water quality was maintained was similar in the sense
that both cities benefited from riparian restoration, but different in the
sense that Portland benefited indirectly from land use policy. A combination
of long-term legacy effects of land development, and a relatively short
history of riparian restoration in both the Portland and Vancouver regions,
may have masked any subtle differences between study areas. An alternative
explanation is that both cities exhibited combinations of positive indirect
and direct water quality governance that resulted in maintenance of water
quality in the face of increased urban growth. These findings suggest that a
much longer-term water quality monitoring effort is needed to identify the
effectiveness of alternative land development and water governance policies. |
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