MSGID: 1:317/3 62735324   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Urbanization linked to poor ecological knowledge, less environmental   
   action    
      
     Date:   
         May 4, 2022   
     Source:   
         National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)   
     Summary:   
         A new study highlights a sharp contrast between urban and suburban   
         ways of thinking about coastal ecosystems. The authors of the study   
         used statistical and cognitive science techniques to analyze data   
         from a survey of 1,400 residents across the U.S. East Coast. Their   
         results showed that surveyed residents of urban centers often held   
         a more simplistic, and less realistic, understanding of coastal   
         ecosystems than residents in suburban areas. The research also   
         uncovered a lower propensity to take pro-environmental actions   
         among urban populations.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and   
   Technology (NIST) and collaborators highlights a sharp contrast between   
   urban and suburban ways of thinking about coastal ecosystems.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   The authors of the study used statistical and cognitive science techniques   
   to analyze data from a survey of 1,400 residents across the U.S. East   
   Coast. Their results, published in the journal npj Urban Sustainability,   
   showed that surveyed residents of urban centers often held a more   
   simplistic, and less realistic, understanding of coastal ecosystems   
   than residents in suburban areas. The research also uncovered a lower   
   propensity to take pro-environmental actions among urban populations. The   
   study provides evidence for an issue the authors refer to as urbanized   
   knowledge syndrome, which may be detrimental to natural ecosystems and   
   hamper community resilience to natural disasters.   
      
   "We're hypothesizing that urbanization is not only impacting the   
   ecological dimension of the system, but also the social dimension of   
   the system, which may, in turn, cause people to disengage from positive   
   environmental behavior.   
      
   It's something of a snowball effect," said Payam Aminpour, a NIST   
   postdoctoral research fellow and lead author of the study.   
      
   As part of NIST's Community Resilience Program, Aminpour and his   
   colleagues were particularly interested in gaining a better understanding   
   of what drives decisions surrounding resilience and adaptation measures   
   in urban areas. As a result of a survey devised and distributed by study   
   co-authors at Northeastern University, they have been able to take a   
   significant stride in the right direction.   
      
   The survey was targeted at coastal counties in metropolitan areas across   
   eight states, each of which featured shorelines with varying densities of   
   roads, sea walls, ditches and other "gray" infrastructure. On the National   
   Center for Health Statistics' six-level urban-rural classification scheme,   
   surveyed residents largely resided in the three most urban levels,   
   ranging from city centers to suburbs.   
      
   The list of questions was designed to extract information about   
   respondents' demographics, understanding of ecosystems and whether or not   
   they had partaken in a list of pro-environmental activities, including   
   voting for political candidates based on environmental stances, voicing   
   complaints to government agencies, contributing to conservation groups   
   and other actions.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Aminpour and colleagues at NIST used a technique called fuzzy cognitive   
   mapping to build visual representations of each respondent's environmental   
   perceptions based on the survey data. The maps indicated the nature of   
   perceived relationships between different environmental elements such   
   as how recreational areas influence marshes and vice versa.   
      
   As the authors of the study searched for patterns among the crowd of maps,   
   two distinct types emerged.   
      
   In the maps of some respondents, relationships tended to run in one   
   direction, exhibiting a way of thinking, or mental model, called linear   
   thinking. In a linear thought process, a person might view sea walls   
   as shoreline fortifications that prevent erosion at no cost. Another   
   example of linear thinking could be the perception that overfishing is   
   only an issue for the fish.   
      
   The maps of other residents displayed more complex, two-way relationships,   
   which indicated that these respondents thought about the environment as   
   a system. With this line of thinking, known as systems thinking, someone   
   might recognize that although sea walls provide structural integrity   
   to a shoreline, they alter the way that water flows along the shore and   
   could potentially accelerate erosion. In this kind of thinking, a person   
   may also acknowledge that, by diminishing fish stock, overfishing could   
   trigger greater restrictions on fishing activities in the future.   
      
   The latter of the two models is more likely to help people consider   
   nuanced aspects of human-nature interactions, such as the give-and-take   
   dynamics between different elements.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Next, the team tried to identify factors that correlate with and could   
   potentially explain what steers people toward either kind of model.   
      
   "We explored the association of these two distinct clusters of mental   
   models with many different aspects including education, age, political   
   affiliation, homeownership," Aminpour said. "We found that, among those   
   factors, urbanization and the percentage of shorelines armored with gray   
   infrastructure had strong positive associations with the mental models of   
   residents that showed more linear thinking."  Conversely, their analysis   
   showed that suburban residents living amid a lower density of artificial   
   structures than urban dwellers were more aligned with systems thinking,   
   Aminpour said.   
      
   An important behavioral difference between the two was in the   
   self-reporting of behaviors that favored the environment. Linear thinking,   
   a trait largely manifested by urbanites, was linked closely to less   
   pro-environmental action.   
      
   Further analysis involved making comparisons between every possible pair   
   of maps within the linear and systems thinking clusters to understand the   
   diversity of models in each, Aminpour said. Greater diversity of thinking   
   has previously been connected to greater adaptability and resilience   
   in communities, but once more, the team uncovered more evidence for   
   urbanized knowledge syndrome. The group displaying linear thinking and   
   greater urbanization exhibited a large degree of uniformity, while the   
   systems thinking group was much more diverse.   
      
   Although these findings strongly tie environmental factors to lines of   
   thinking and behavior within coastal communities, there is still more   
   to learn before concrete conclusions can be drawn.   
      
   "We can't yet say which comes first. Do you have systems thinking so   
   you prefer to live in areas with more natural ecosystems, or does living   
   in less urbanized areas make you develop systems thinking? We need more   
   rigorous experiments to find out," Aminpour said.   
      
   The researchers pose that answering these questions is of utmost   
   importance. If urbanization does indeed drive behavior, then urban   
   development and gray infrastructure may be fueling a self-serving feedback   
   loop that could damage ecosystems and community resilience.   
      
   Getting ahold of more data and concrete answers could strengthen the   
   case for more facilities and structures that incorporate nature, also   
   known as green infrastructure. And it would feed into an ongoing effort   
   at NIST to understand the value that different kinds of infrastructure   
   bring to communities.   
      
   This approach could potentially flip the loop, feeding into greater   
   systems thinking and greater sustainability.   
      
   "We have evidence that there's something more going on with   
   infrastructure. It may have a rippling effect through aspects of   
   communities, like the diversity of thinking about the environment," said   
   Jennifer Helgeson, a NIST research economist and study co-author. "This   
   is hopefully the tip of the iceberg of what we can learn."   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   National_Institute_of_Standards_and_Technology_(NIST).   
      
   Note: Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Payam Aminpour, Steven A. Gray, Michael W. Beck, Kelsi L. Furman,   
      Ismini   
         Tsakiri, Rachel K. Gittman, Jonathan H. Grabowski,   
         Jennifer Helgeson, Lauren Josephs, Matthias Ruth, Steven   
         B. Scyphers. Urbanized knowledge syndrome--erosion of diversity   
         and systems thinking in urbanites' mental models. npj Urban   
         Sustainability, 2022; 2 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s42949-022- 00054-0   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220504082613.htm   
      
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