The More the Mossier: Using Community Science to Map Air Quality in Environmental Justice Investigations

Concerned about air quality in south-central Seattle’s Duwamish Valley, community leaders collaborated with USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station to implement a study similar to one in Portland, Oregon, in 2015 that found that urban tree moss indicated the presence of airborne toxic metals. Together, PNW Research Station scientists and community leaders designed a study that not only collected moss samples from this heavily polluted area but also engaged 55 community members, including 25 members of the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, to do so.

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State Revolving Fund Advocacy Toolkit

The State Revolving Fund (SRF) Advocacy Toolkit, created in partnership between River Network and Clean Water For All, was developed to support state and local advocates interested in water infrastructure investment who are seeking to better understand the State Revolving Fund (SRF) process.

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Hazard Mitigation Assistance Mitigation Action Portfolio

“This portfolio showcases mitigation projects to provide practitioners with examples of activities that integrate the Investment Strategy’s goals and reflect the guiding principles of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA). Beginning in 2020, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and … Continued

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2020 Colorado Resiliency Framework

The 2020 Resiliency Framework from the Colorado Resiliency Office highlights cross-sector work as an important component to implementing equitable resilience. The framework also highlights priorities and action steps to achieve them.   “Colorado creatively implements forward-thinking solutions that are sustainable … Continued

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Building Alliances for Equitable Resilience

Building Alliances for Equitable Resilience was developed by the Resilient Nation Partnership Network to deliver insights and perspectives to achieving a more resilient nation. The report includes Partner Perspectives on topics like equity vs. equality and overcoming unconscious bias and … Continued

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Duwamish Valley Action Plan

The City of Seattle, in cooperation with community partners, the Duwamish Valley Action Plan: Advancing Environmental Justice & Equitable Development in Seattle. Priority areas include: Healthy Environment, Parks and Open Spaces, Community Capacity, Mobility and Transportation, Economic Opportunity and Jobs, … Continued

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Policy and Planning Tools for Urban Green Justice

The report by the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability partnered with several organizations to create the report Policy and Planning Tools for Urban Green Justice: Fighting displacement and gentrification and improving accessibility and inclusivity to green amenities. … Continued

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Equitable Water Infrastructure Toolkit

This River Network Equitable Infrastructure Toolkit is a one-stop shop for community stakeholders, advocates, and leaders to: Identify the factors that affect water affordability; Become familiar with water infrastructure funding and financing mechanisms; and Understand the role and impact of … Continued

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The Opportunity on Water

The Opportunity on Water: How public opinion, politics, and decades of deep organizing have set the stage for real progress, right now is a new report by the Water Hub that shows how water is “common thread that runs through … Continued

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Green Stormwater Infrastructure: Impact on Property Values

The report from the Center for Neighborhood Technology outlines the impacts of green infrastructure investments on property values. The report also addresses the issue of green gentrification and includes anti-displacement practices. The authors state: “The best practices around the country … Continued

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Opportunities for Equitable Adaptation in Cities

The report summarizes a workshop hosted by the Georgetown Climate Center and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. The workshop brought together city, state, and federal officials to discuss methods to include social equity and environmental justice in building resilience to … Continued

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Sharing in the Benefits of a Greening City

The guidelines in this toolkit created by The CREATE Initiative partners comes out of the question: “What does it look like to envision green spaces as sites through which to build a more equitable and just world?” Sharing in the … Continued

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The Sustainable Square Mile Handbook

The handbook was created from a collaboration between Blacks in Green (BIG) and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), making connections between BIG’s programs—the Sustainable Square Mile, Grannynomics, and Green Village Building—and NRDC’s guidelines for Leadership in Energy and Environmental … Continued

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UWLN Annual Snapshot 2019

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. Discover 2019’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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The City of Providence’s Climate Justice Plan

In the Fall of 2019, the City of Providence released it’s Climate Justice Plan–a report that outlines the goal to not only become carbon neutral by 2050 but also to dedicate resources to frontline communities in leading the charge. The … Continued

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Greening without Gentrification

The UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability and the University of Utah created the report, Greening without Gentrification, as an analysis of equitable development strategies being employed when large parks and green space are developed in marginalized neighborhoods. The report shares … Continued

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What About Housing: A Policy Toolkit for Inclusive Growth

Housing is one of the most important solutions to preventing displacement and creating equitable development. As quoted within the document, “Grounded Solutions Network created this toolkit to help communities understand their housing policy options and the approach that will work … Continued

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Pathway to Parks & Affordable Housing Joint Development

Drawing on experiences of Transit Oriented Development, LA THRIVES and Los Angeles Regional Open Space and Affordable Housing (LA ROSAH) Coalition, created a report outlining five strategies that integrate urban greening (i.e. parks and green infrastructure investments) with affordable housing. … Continued

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Jobs and Equity in the Urban Forest

The report describes opportunities for equitable policy-making in municipal and regional settings for urban forestry initiatives. Community-based workforce development and job opportunities are described as well as an example of the economic impacts of a social enterprise. Successful case studies … Continued

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2018 National Training Workshop Summary Notes

This workshop summary provides an overview of the 2018 National Training Workshop sessions and key discussion topics. Links to all available presentations and photographs from the workshop are available on the main website. Direct links to each speaker’s presentation are also provided in the summary PDF. 

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Healthy Development without Displacement

This resource from the Prevention Institute addresses the question: “What can people working on “healthy community” issues—like active transportation, parks, healthy food, planning, public health, healthcare, and more—do in their own work to improve community conditions without contributing to gentrification … Continued

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UWLN Annual Snapshot 2018

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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UWLN Semiannual Snapshot Jan-Jun 2018

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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UWLN Semiannual Snapshot July-Dec 2017

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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UWLN Semiannual Snapshot Jan-Jun 2017

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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UWLN Annual Snapshot 2017

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more.

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UWLN Annual Snapshot 2016

The Urban Waters Learning Network tracks the growth of the network on a semi-annual and annual basis. View this report to discover this period’s numbers on membership, publication of Impact Stories and blog posts, number of webinars produced, and more. 

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Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action

This report compiles informative case studies, focusing on programs that have successfully incorporated artists, art, and culture into their place-based, transformative approaches. These programs aimed to address affordability issues, make connections between people and their environment, promote holistic water resource management, increase community participation, mitigate and remediate damages, integrate community needs into infrastructure, and support community activism.

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Urban Nature for Human Health and Well Being

This report provides the latest research on the social, health, and economic benefits of urban green space, with an emphasis on tree canopies. Research shows that more trees and green space in urban areas directly reduce pollution, reduce heat, encourage exercise and related health, lower stress, and improve longevity among residents.

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Sustainable Models for Green Infrastructure Maintenance

This report on Sustainable Models for Green Infrastructure Maintenance in the Great Lakes Region summarizes the findings of a 2016 convening in Buffalo, NY of local government, land bank, sewer district, nonprofit, landscape, and community and workforce development professionals from … Continued

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Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap

To understand the causes of this disparity, the Building Movement Project conducted the Nonprofits, Leadership, and Race survey with over 4,000 respondents. The study found few differences between white and people of color (POC) respondents in their aspirations or preparation for leadership roles—in fact people of color are more likely to be interested in becoming a nonprofit leader than whites. Survey respondents identified Boards of Directors and executive recruiters as key barriers to the hiring of more people of color executive directors/CEOs.

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An Equitable Water Future: a National Briefing Paper

This U.S. Water Alliance publication summarizes the overarching and regional challenges that demonstrate the need for more equitable approaches, then outlines the “three pillars of equity” based on USWA’s original research, as well as data from PolicyLink. The report goes … Continued

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Gentrification and Residential Mobility in Philadelphia

By focusing on Philadelphia and comparing this city’s mobility rates with other gentrification and displacement studies, it becomes evident that the effects of gentrification are extremely complex and can affect populations in a variety of ways depending on income level and other demographics. 

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Exploring the Green Infrastructure Workforce

This study was produced by Jobs for the Future (JFF) as part of NatureWORKS, a national initiative to understand the jobs, careers, skills, credentials, and potential of the U.S. green infrastructure workforce; and was funded by the U.S. Forest Service’s … Continued

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River Voices (2015) Diversity & Inclusiveness

This issue of River Network’s quarterly newsletter describes how various river and water-focused organizations around the country are working to diversify their organizations and become more inclusive in their work. Download this resource

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River Voices (2015) Green Infrastructure & Urban Rivers

This issue of River Network’s quarterly newsletter explores the topic of turning our cities blue, of moving from gray to green infrastructure, and the related benefits to our communities of restoring the health of our urban waters. Download this resource

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Daylighting: New Life for Buried Streams

Report describing the process of daylighting streams. Daylighting projects liberate waterways that were buried in culverts or pipes or otherwise removed from view and re-establishes a waterway in its old channel where feasible, or a new channel. Download this resource

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Green 2.0: The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations

This is a comprehensive report on diversity in the environmental movement. It surveyed 191 environmental non-profits, 74 government environmental agencies, and 28 leading environmental grant making foundations to investigate their gender and racial diversity composition. Download this resource

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2015 Rogue Estuary Strategic Plan

A strategic plan to guide restoration, enhancement, and conservation efforts in the estuary and its tributaries; emphasizing wetlands, floodplain connectivity, off-channel habitat, and water quality. Download this resource

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