Urban stormwater runoff rates are expected to intensify with climate change. Permeable surfaces, a low-impact development (LID) stormwater management technology, can be used to mitigate the impacts of urban stormwater runoff. Permeable surfaces have demonstrable benefits for use in northern climates, but widespread use requires greater recognition of this potential. This article reports on the multiple barriers associated with the installation of a permeable surface in single-family residences, along with the characteristics and incentives associated with early adopters. Results from standardized, self-administered mail-back questionnaires distributed within a Kitchener, Canada, community identified awareness, cost, and technological acceptance as permeable surface adoption barriers. Other results indicate that Kitchener residents possess the necessary characteristics to support permeable surface adoption once technical and economic barriers are resolved. This article contributes insights on barriers to LID urban stormwater management practices to both the academic and applied literatures.

Environmental Practice 16: 6–18 (2014)

With budget and time constraints in environmental permitting, the collection of baseline water quality data relies on rapid environmental assessments (REAs). In south Texas, we investigated the usefulness of including physicochemical parameters and freshwater benthic macroinvertebrate and fish assemblage data to rapidly assess a drainage canal system. Data were converted to chemical averages and metrics, and sample sites meeting the greatest number of metric criteria for high water quality in south Texas were identified. The REA approach determined bioreference sites that could provide baseline data for wetland permitting, mitigation planning, and future comparisons. We demonstrate that the REA approach for drainage canals was useful and provided the necessary data for US Clean Water Act 401 and 404 environmental permitting and decision making for the Raymondville Drain Outfall Project.

Environmental Practice 16: 19–28 (2014)

Climate change knowledge and risk perceptions were examined in farming communities in Southern Ethiopia. Based on multistage probability sampling, data were collected from 2,188 respondents. Most respondents (80%) were concerned about risk of climate change. Variables that predicted knowledge and risk perception for both men and women were frequency of listening to the radio, household size, agroclimatic zone, and educational status. Additionally, age, household wealth, and social institution membership were predictive for women, and frequency of newspaper reading was predictive for men. The high levels of risk perception suggest receptiveness to context-appropriate strategies to reduce potential long-term vulnerability.

Environmental Practice 16: 29–36 (2014)

This article is an investigation of the different factors that potentially influence the career choices of Canadian female professionals working in water research and policy (WRP). This community was broadly defined as any Canadian engineers, technicians, biologists, planners, economists, scholars conducting physical and social research, public servants (e.g., national, provincial, municipal), and civil society activists who were self-identified as working on water-related issues. Participants’ essay responses were assessed by using an integrated comparative framework—drawing insights from economics, social network theory, environmental psychology, innovation, knowledge management, and pro-environmental behavior. Focus was placed on participants’ responses about what motivated their careers, how this motivation sustained their professional participation over time, and whether different experiences with people and/or nature influenced their contributions to Canadian WRP. The data analysis indicated that female professionals draw on their relationships and experiential knowledge to make career decisions, sustain their career progression, and direct their career contributions. The analysis suggested that both recruitment and retention within the water community could be improved by providing recognition of alternative knowledge opportunities, including opportunities to develop skill mastery over existing or new skills, and experiential knowledge in nature for children, and by facilitating mentorship relationships and social networks. By doing so, these interventions would help sustain the availability of diverse knowledge resources held by female professionals within Canadian WRP.

Environmental Practice 16: 37–51 (2014)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) clearly has a role to play in how projects with a federal nexus prepare for climate change. To help agencies improve their consideration of climate change, the Council on Environmental Quality in February 2010 released the NEPA draft guidance, which addresses both emissions and the effects of climate change on agency actions and the affected environment. We analyzed every available final environmental impact statement (154 total) released in July 2011–April 2012, and found that very few incorporated the climate adaptation elements of the 2010 draft guidance. Even the environmental impact statements with the most attention to climate change adaptation considered the effect of climate change with respect to only a limited number of the elements of the affected environment, failed to fully compare the various alternatives, or used short,qualitative statements rather than full analysis based on the best available science. We explore the possible reasons for this and present recommendations for overcoming these obstacles.

Environmental Practice 16: 52–76 (2014)

To comply with President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 12898 addressing environmental justice, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working for over two decades to develop consistent indices and screening tools to measure disproportionate impact and identify environmental justice communities. Its efforts have been complicated by methodological problems, divergent interpretations of policy, and concerns about the misuse of such screening tools. This review of recent scholarship and developments in EPA environmental justice policy proposes that instead of a single index of disproportionate impact associated with a single type of environmental justice community, regulatory agencies should aim to produce screening tools that incorporate multiple indices of impact and a diverse typology of environmental justice communities. It argues that adopting such an approach would not only better reflect the environmental justice movement’s emphasis on difference and diversity, but also produce more effective and acceptable screening tools that are less susceptible to misuse.

Environmental Practice 16: 77–86 (2014)