Current practices of urban park management and urban landscape design are often predicated upon the principle that enhancing ecosystem services within urban neighborhoods promotes both social and ecological stability by instilling pride-of-place and environmental stewardship values among neighborhood residents. However, important questions remain concerning the ability of urban parks to sustain meaningful ecosystem services that benefit city residents, despite multiple, accelerating challenges to ecological integrity, e.g., overpopulated deer, invasive plant and animal species, waste- and storm water impacts, especially within older, economically-challenged cities. Economic hardship has also resulted in an abundance of vacant/abandoned properties in many cities, which urban landscape designers often view as opportunities for re-development that incorporate natural amenities and ecosystem services into the urban core. The objectives of this research will be to investigate social determinants of stewardship and best management practices within park neighborhoods in response to educational and outreach programming and retrofit technologies supplied by a community-based watershed protection organization, and monitor the long-term changes in ecological, hydrologic, and socioeconomic variables in response to these interventions. Inventories and ecological/socioeconomic characterizations of vacant and abandoned properties within Cuyahoga County, Ohio, will be developed. This process will serve as a basis for planning the redevelopment of one or more neighborhoods and future implementation of long-term monitoring of ecological, hydrologic, and socioeconomic variables within those sites.
The project will promote the integration of scientific and design approaches to urban ecosystem studies. The project will establish the Northeast Ohio Ecosystem Consortium (NEOECO), a multi-institutional partnership that will bring focus and integration to the region's considerable intellectual assets and research capacity in urban ecology, landscape design, urban planning, and natural resource management. The participation of leading agencies for natural resource management within NEOECO will promote the effective transfer of scientific knowledge into decision-making for management and revitalization of the degraded Cleveland urban ecosystem. Community-engagement through meetings, workshops, and the Internet are principal activities of this project. The NEOECO website will provide modes of access to project results and data tailored to scholarly, professional, and educational users. Educational outreach will also be accomplished by interacting with existing programs hosted by NEOECO participants that provide urban ecological training to students and teachers within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Graduate and undergraduate participants in the project will receive interdisciplinary training integrating elements of ecological science, resource management, and urban landscape design.
