Carissa Schively Slotterback

• PhD, Urban and Regional Planning
• University of Minnesota

University–community collaborations, that is partnerships between universities and community organizations, cities, etc., have significant potential to advance both, education and urban innovation. Urban areas face a number of constraints in identifying and advancing innovations as city and community leaders may lack access to the latest scientific...

Meeting the societal demand for food, bioproducts and water under climate change is likely to greatly challenge the maize-soybean agriculture of the Midwest USA, which is a globally significant resource. New agricultural systems are needed that can meet this challenge. Innovations in water management engineering and cropping system diversification...

As the number of resettled refugees arriving in North American and European cities has grown in the 21st century, urban planners have largely failed to adapt their practice in ways that would allow more participation by refugees in municipal planning decisions. Interviews with urban planners and Somali refugees in the Twin Cities of Minnesota indic...

Technological improvements of HVAC-systems, buildings and other energy consuming products can support a reduction of CO2 emissions. The implementation of energy efficient technology is important to reach the climatic goals of the Paris agreement. As cities are the main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, they offer great potential for impleme...

Cities are responsible for more than 70 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, cities can play a major part within the CO 2 emission reduction goals of the Paris agreement. Lack of technical knowledge and solutions has often been seen as major challenge for energy efficiency implementation. However, findings of the International Energy Agency...

http://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/agriculture-and-the-river-the-universitys-role-in-societal-learning-innovation-and-action/

This paper illustrates the application of Geodesign in the context of multifunctional landscape scale planning and design to optimize production of food and biofuel commodities with enhanced water quality and habitat performance. It draws on multiple disciplinary perspectives, highlighting the contributions of Geodesign in advancing stakeholder con...

Kathryn S. Quick is assistant professor in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Formerly a public and nonprofi t manager, she now focuses her research and teaching on civic engagement, integrative leadership, and public and nonprofi t management. Through ethnographic research, she studies a diver-sity of approaches...

Global demand is increasing for food, feed, and fiber; for additional agricultural outputs, such as biofuels; and for ecosystem services, such as clean water and outdoor recreation. In response, new agricultural enterprises are needed that produce more outputs from existing lands while meeting the “triple bottom line” of high performance in economi...

The purpose of this Theory to Practice article is to present a systematic, cross-disciplinary, and accessible synthesis of relevant research and to offer explicit evidence-based design guidelines to help practitioners design better participation processes. From the research literature, the authors glean suggestions for iteratively creating, managin...

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TS/2013/201330.pdf

This study examines the first generation of state and local policies in the US that require consideration of climate change in environmental impact analysis (EIA). Based on a review of six policies, the study finds significant variation in approach relative to the nature of analyses (quantitative versus qualitative), consideration of various greenh...

Increasingly, total maximum daily load (TMDL) limits are being defined for agricultural watersheds. Reductions in non-point source pollution are often needed to meet TMDL limits, and improvements in management of annual crops appear insufficient to achieve the necessary reductions. Increased adoption of perennial crops and other changes in agricult...

This study examined potential opportunities and constraints related to the development and deployment of technology in participation processes, including resources available, benefits and outcomes of technology, and technology implementation. On the basis of a survey of planners relative to eleven technology scenarios, varied access to staff, hardw...

There is increasing interest in Health Impact Assessment in planning. This paper describes the results of different approaches to health impact assessment (HIA) conducted in 10 municipalities and one county in Minnesota. The paper outlines the HIA processes, outputs, and short-term outcomes concluding that it is important to engage a diverse group...

This study examines the nature and effects of participation in the planning and design of transportation facilities. It focuses on best practices for organizing planning and decision processes for transportation facilities, which serve as the basis for evaluating process outcomes. The study places a particular emphasis on effective participation pr...

Health impact assessments (HIAs) provide an attractive approach for those interested in injecting health issues into planning processes. While HIAs have been mainly employed outside the United States and led by professionals from the public health field, they hold promise for addressing the important dimension of human health in planning. This arti...

How can planners more systematically incorporate health concerns into practical planning processes? This paper describes a suite of health impact assessment tools (HIAs) developed specifically for planning practice. Taking an evidence-based approach the tools are designed to fit into existing planning activities. The tools include: a short audit to...

Can the craft of planning take advantage of a growing body of planning-relevant research? Evidence-based practice proposes a better connection between research and professional work, but raises several concerns about the character of valid evidence, the strength and clarity of planning research, and inequalities in the available resources for integ...

Scholars have identified group learning as both an outcome of effective participatory planning processes and as the means to achieving agreement on planning outputs and to building constituencies for plan implementation. This article examines the challenges of designing empirical studies of group learning in participatory planning processes that ha...

University of Minnesota School of Public health, USA.

Scoping efforts are conducted at the beginning of National Environmental Policy Act processes and focus on preliminary efforts to engage stakeholders, gather information, and identify issues to focus on during the environmental impact statement. Based on a study of state departments of transportation in the US, a number of challenges in conducting...

This article uses sustainability as a lens through which to examine affordable housing policies in geographically-isolated island communities, with the intent of assessing the utility of using sustainable development as a guide to policy decision-making. Focusing on the case of Key West, Florida, the article points to the conflicts that must be rec...

The implementation of mitigation strategies and outcomes of environmental review remains a challenge for planners and regulators. While the process and content of environmental review is clearly defined, there is often little attention to what happens after the review is completed. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the implementat...

Focusing on environmental review practice in state departments of transportation in the US, the study examines the practices and effects of stakeholder involvement in scoping processes conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Based on a survey of environmental review staff in 46 of the 50 states, the study finds variation in ap...

This study analyzes consensus-building efforts in environmental review. It provides evidence of the effectiveness of consensus building by assessing changes in participants' perceptions before and after their involvement in a stakeholder advisory panel. In contrast to qualitative case study investigations of consensus building, this study uses quan...

A substantial amount of research relative to the not in my backyard (NIMBY) and locally unwanted land use (LULU) phenomena has been conducted during the past two decades. The article begins by illustrating the complex nature of these phenomena, noting variation in the types of facilities considered LULUs, the range of participants who exhibit NIMBY...

This dissertation highlights the results of an investigation of the effects of uncertainty on siting decisions involving locally unwanted land uses (LULUs). Focusing specifically on the siting of natural gas-powered energy facilities in California, the analysis of data gathered from a survey of participants illustrates the effects of participants'...