April 2014 All-Project Meeting: Discussing Theory as a Path to BES IV

It is something of a truism that in a Long-Term Ecological Research project that one is either preparing for a mid-term, external review, or preparing for a renewal proposal.  BES just had its mid-term review in October 2013.  That means we must now be preparing for the 2016 renewal proposal – and that is, in fact, the case.  

A Suite of Preparatory Activities

The activities we have undertaken this year – our quarterly All-Project Meetings, our book of the year, and our webinars on the structure and content of theory in BES are intended to help us prepare for the renewal proposal.  This is serious work, and everybody in BES ought to be involved in these activities.

We have had two webinars to date: 1) a discussion of chapters 1 and 2 in Scheiner and Willig’s (2011) Theory of Ecology, and 2) a discussion of a draft white paper on the theory of urban heterogeneity.  We have recorded these webinars for reference by those who were unable to attend.  Go here for Webinar 1 https://vimeo.com/89529855 and here for Webinar 2 http://vimeo.com/89746068.  The introductory PowerPoint for Webinar 2 is here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx-QKDoShVRkQmFEa25MQVB0YlU/.

The April Meeting as a Step toward BES IV.

The 8 April 2014, All-Project Meeting continues this work.  In it, we will discuss the theory of urban heterogeneity, examine the existing subtheories we employ, and explore alternative theoretical content, and specific research questions, especially those aimed at integration.  The meeting will incorporate new insights from many members of BES through discussions aimed at clarifying our theoretical structure, enhancing integration, and strategizing about our long-term data collection.

There is homework for the meeting.  

Please read or review the following materials.

Theory of Urban Heterogeneity
1. Cadenasso, M.L., E.J. Rosi-Marshall, S.T.A. Pickett, et al. TBD.  A Theory of Urban Heterogeneity: A Framework to Promote Integration and Hypothesis Generation for BES IV. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-QKDoShVRkZFBnTGwwWHBEX28/edit?usp=sharing

Structure and Use of Ecological Theory
2.  Kolasa, J. 2011. Theory makes ecology evolve. Pages 21-49 in S. M. Scheiner and M. R. Willig, editors. The theory of ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

3. Scheiner, S. M. and M. R. Willig. 2011. A general theory of ecology. Pages 3-18 in S. M. Scheiner and M. R. Willig, editors. The theory of ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Metacommunity Theory
4. Leibold, M. A. 2011. The metacommunity concept and its theoretical underpinnings. Pages 163-183 in S. M. Scheiner and M. R. Willig, editors. The theory of ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

5. Swan, C. M., S. T. A. Pickett, K. Szlavecz, P. Warren, and K. T. Willey. 2011. Biodiversity and community composition in urban ecosystems: coupled human, spatial, and metacommunity processes. Pages 179-186 in J. Niemela, editor. Handbook of Urban Ecology. Oxford University Press, New York.

The River Continuum and the Urban Watershed Continuum
6. Kaushal, S.S., K.T. Belt. 2012. The urban watershed continuum: evolving spatial and temporal dimensions. Urban Ecosystems. 15:409-435. doi:10.1007/s11252-012-0226-7.

7. Vannote, R. L., G. W. Minshall, K. W. Cummins, J. R. Sedell, and C. E. Cushing. 1980. The river continuum concept. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 37:130-137.

Locational Choice
8. Irwin, Elena G., Kathleen P. Bell, Nancy E. Bockstael, David Newburn, Mark D. Partridge, JunJie Wu. 2009. “The economics of urban-rural space”Annual Review of Resource Economics, 1: 435-459.

9. Brasington, D. 2013. “Housing choice, residential mobility, and hedonic approaches.” In Fischer, M. and P. Nijkamp (ed.), Handbook of Regional Science, Berlin: Springer Verlag, pp. 147-166

Agenda

Here's the agenda for the meeting, to be held in room 206 of the Technology Research Center building on the UMBC campus (5200 Westland Blvd
Baltimore, MD 21227):

8:30 am Coffee and welcome

9-9:15 am Overview of goals for the day and brief overview of the essay (See citation no. 1, above)

9:15-10 am Discussion of homework assignments

10-10:15 am Specific charge to the breakout groups

10:30-12 pm Breakout group session 1

Noon-1:30 pm Lunch on your own/with breakout groups

1:30-2:00 pm Report back from breakout groups

2:00-3:30 pm Breakout group session 2 “Mixing it up”

3:30-4:30 pm Report back from breakout groups and final thoughts

Worksheets

At the meeting we will use two worksheets to extend our thinking, integrative, and data strategies within the theoretical structure begun in the "heterogeneity essay" cited above.  Copies will be handed out at the meeting, but previews are available here:

Worksheet 1.  Identifying subtheories and BES long-term data that can be used to test theory.  If datasets are not being collected that you think would be useful, identify potential new datasets.

Worksheet 2: Identifying Specific Linkages/Interactions Among Subtheories

(a number of links have been provided, but please feel free to add more!)

Join the Meeting In Person or on the Web

The planning for the BES IV proposal has begun, and your contributions to that are crucial.  Be there or be square!  If you cannot attend the 8 April 2014 meeting in person, we encourage you to join via Go-To-Meeting.  The link to start the day at 9:00 a.m. is here: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/716973005  (To break the meeting recording into manageable chunks, we will generate separate links for the time periods after 10:30 a.m. EDT on that day.)

Quarterly Project Meeting on BES III Conceptual Structure

On 25 January 2013, BES will hold a half day session on the conceptual structure of phase III of the project.      This meeting will run from 8:30 till noon, starting with a light breakfast.  This meeting will be held at the USGS Conference Room at 5522 Research Park Drive, on the edge of the UMBC campus in Baltimore County.

The goal of the meeting is to allow our academic and professional community to better integrate our project, to be able to articulate how our various individual projects contribute to the overall goals, and to lay out a strategy to prepare for the external mid-term review to be held in October 2013.

The meeting will review our new guiding question, discuss and link the more specific research questions to that overarching question, and explore how better to use our three theoretical umbrellas for integration.  In addition, how our modeling efforts are being used to promote the hierarchy of research questions and unify the three theoretical areas, will be discussed.

All members of the BES community are invited to participate in this meeting.  It will follow our full day session on education, to be held on Thursday 24 January.

The agenda and several background documents are on file for those with this link:

https://drive.google.com/?usp=chrome_app#folders/0B88E9KO3vp4LLXZ4TUZ6ZHNmOW8

In this folder, background materials, such as the BES III proposal and several papers relevant to the transition from the sanitary to the sustainable city are on file: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B88E9KO3vp4LN3M4WkFwYUpQa1E/edit

I hope to see you there!

BES Quarterly Research Meeting: Green Infrastructure

What's Green Infrastructure?

The BES community will meet, along with managers and policy makers, on 19 April 2012 to discuss green infrastructure. The Baltimore City Office of Sustainability has provided this description of green infrastructure: 

As opposed to ‘gray’ infrastructure, which includes transportation and utility networks, green infrastructure is interconnected ecological systems that include natural areas such as forests and streams as well as constructed elements such as urban parks, trails, streetscapes, stormwater management practices, community gardens, and urban agriculture.

 Green infrastructure provides critical environmental functions and benefits including cleaner water, cleaner air, enhanced habitat and biodiversity. It also provides key social and economic functions such as decreased energy costs, opportunities for recreation and economic development, as well as improved health and quality of life.

Why Green Infrastructure?

 

We are engaging in this discussion because green infrastructure provides an excellent way to both improve the social-ecological functioning of urban ecosystems, and a platform for working with policy makers and managers.  Meeting Chair Morgan Grove has lined up an excellent roster of speakers, for the morning.  These presentations will present background on the nature of green infrastructure, the hydrological components of green infrastructure, the social and economic significance of green infrastructure, and an overview of monitoring research.

Discussions to Promote Collaboration

After lunch, the group will present existing and proposed research projects with the intent of identifying how they can connect to and improve the understanding and functioning of green infrastructure in the Baltimore Metropolitan region.  The second discussion period will focus on how BES research and education can collaborate with government agencies and non-governmental organizations with existing resources.  Follow up will explore plans for developing new resources for this important collaboration.

Importance of Green Infrastructure for BES

Green infrastructure is one of the main ways in which city-suburban-exurban systems can become more sustainable.  It is important for BES to work with green infrastructure as both a research topic and an opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life and resilience of the Baltimore socio-ecological system.

See the BES News page for the agenda for the meeting: http://beslter.org/science-meeting.html