CURes Managing Director Michele Romolini was an author on two new publications related to environmental stewardship and governing for the sustainable city.
First, Dr. Romolini authored “Stewardship Networks and the Evolution of Governance for the Sustainable City,” a chapter in the edited volume, Science for the Sustainable City: Empirical Insights from the Baltimore School of Urban Ecology, recently published by Yale University Press. In the chapter, Dr. Romolini and her co-authors explore changes in the network of organizations conducting environmental stewardship activities in the Gwynns Falls Watershed in Baltimore, MD. Over the span of 12 years, from 1999-2011, they found the overall number of stewardship organizations increased by 64% and the number and influence of federal and state agencies decreased, in favor of a larger presence and role for local non-profits and city agencies.
Second, Dr. Romolini was part of a team led by Drs. Michelle Johnson and Dexter Locke to publish “Context Matters: Influence of Organizational, Environmental, and Social Factors on Civic Environmental Stewardship Group Intensity” in the latest issue of Ecology and Society. This paper drew upon data from Dr. Romolini’s dissertation research on stewardship networks in Baltimore and Seattle, comparing them to similar stewardship organization data collected in New York City and Chicago. 
The researchers used spatial analysis techniques to assess: What are the neighborhood-level organizational, socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics associated with urban environmental stewardship? Findings revealed some consistent patterns across cities: (1) stewardship activity areas are unequally distributed across each city, and (2) organizational variables are more strongly associated with number of stewardship groups than any environmental or socioeconomic variables.
These two works help forward the study of environmental stewardship, management, and governance of urban natural resources.
For more publications from the CURes team, visit: academics.lmu.edu/cures/research/publications