Leveraging mixed methods in social-ecological systems: A plan for measuring community impacts of environmental...

Traditionally, environmental research and practice treated human beings and ecosystems as two separate entities, focusing on the negative impacts humans cause to ecosystems. Social-ecological systems framing helps to address this long-standing dichotomy. Yet, the integration of social dimensions into social-ecological systems remains poorly defined and contested, requiring more theory development and practice. To fill this gap, we propose a mixed methods (i.e., quantitative and qualitative social science) approach to characterize community impacts from a specific intervention, namely remediation of contaminated sediment and restoration of habitat. We propose data collection along four dimensions - visitor use and type, visual assessment, experiential data, and decision anatomy. We apply this mixed methods approach to a case study of Pickle Pond, a 9-acre manmade pond in Superior, WI, located within the St. Louis River Area of Concern. Throughout Great Lakes Areas of Concern, we are studying how humans and their ecosystems interact over time through ongoing cleanup of legacy contamination. Data collected at the Pickle Pond site between 2020 and 2023 provide an insight into pre-remediation visitor use and type dynamics. Our preliminary findings suggest that leveraging mixed methods can help us: 1) assess whether there are gaps in existing site infrastructure and design, 2) demonstrate that visitors use contaminated sites in various ways, and 3) understand there is scale difference between the biophysical remediation and restoration (Pickle Pond as site specific) and community impacts and benefits (Pickle Pond as part of a larger region). By triangulating data collected through multiple methods and of multiple types, we can identify how communities are impacted by and benefit from large scale cleanups and better understand the complexities of social-ecological decision processes. By unraveling how social-ecological systems change over time, we can develop lessons learned and best practices that can be deployed to other social-ecological systems experiencing change.