Supplementary Material for Chapter 31

Social-ecological Systems Mapping to Enhance Students’ Understanding of Community-Scale Conflicts Related to Industrial Pollution

This chapter is published as:

Gervich CD. 2016. Social-ecological Systems Mapping to Enhance Students’ Understanding of Community-Scale Conflicts Related to Industrial Pollution.In: Byrne L (ed) Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Springer, New York. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28543-6_31

Curt Dawe Gervich

Center for Earth and Environmental Science, SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY USA

This file contains the following supplementary material:

  • E: Link to Online Prezi Presentation … beginning on p. 1
  • F: Additional Reading and Annotated Bibliography … beginning on p. 2
  • H: Presentation Notes … beginning on p. 4
  • I: Follow-up Poisoned Places Assignment … beginning on p. 8

This chapter also has the following supplementary material, available on the chapter’s website:

  • A: EPA EPCRA Fact Sheet
  • B: EPA TRI Fact Sheet
  • C: EPA TRI Timeline
  • D: Presentation Slides
  • G: Poisoned Places Student Listening Guide

Supplementary Material E:Link to Online Prezi Presentation

The following presentation can be used to introduce student to social-ecological systems mapping and other content associated with the activity:

Gervich, Curt D (2015) Social-ecological Systems Mapping as a Tool for Improving Environmental Governance Related to Toxic Pollution. Accessed 12 July 2015

Supplementary Material F: Additional Reading and Annotated Bibliography

Additional resources regarding the industrial accidents that led to the creation of the TRI and similar current events can be found at:

  • Bhopal Water Still Toxic. Thursday, December 3, 2009. Times of Malta. Accessible at:
  • Bhopal 2011: Requiem and Revitalization. January 23- February 4, 2011. School of Planning and Architecture. New Dehli, India. Accessible at:
  • Franklin, Ben A. August 12, 1985. Toxic Cloud Leaks at Carbide Plant in West Virginia.New York Times. Accessible at:
  • Maclean, John N. January 25, 1985. Carbide Knew of Risk at U.S. Plant. Chicago Tribune. Accessible at:
  • Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Chronology of Coverage, 2010-2015. New York Times.Accessible at:

This activity explores the risks of chemical pollutants. As a result, it includes a brief introduction to the realist, constructivist and ecological-symbolic theories of risk perception. The Prezi provides a brief introduction to these frameworks and examples of each. Instructors that want to explore notions of risk at deeper levels may wish to read the following:

  • Bradbury, J.A. 1989. The Policy Implications of Differing Conceptions of Risk. Science, Technology and Human Values. 14(4). 380-399.
  • Kroll-Smith, J.S., Couch S.R. 1993. Symbols, Ecology and Contamination: Case studies in the ecological-symbolic approach to disaster. Research in Social Problems and Public Policy. 5. 47-73.
  • Otoway, H.J., and Thomas, K. 1982. Reflections on Risk Perception and Policy. Risk Analysis. 2. 69-82.

Environmental justice and equity form the ethical foundations of the TI. Resources for a deeper introduction to these topics are:

  • Bullard, Robert D. 2001. Decision Making. Included in Faces of Environmental Racism. Confronting Issues of Global Justice. Edited by Laura Westra and Bill Lawson. Rowman and Littlefield. Lanham, Maryland.
  • The Principles of Environmental Justice. 1991. Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. Accessed May 8, 2015 at:
  • Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities.(Environmental Protection Agency9)June, 1992. Accessed on May 8, 2015 at:

For instructors that wish to dive deeper into the Toxics Release Inventory, specific web pages for review include:

  • Learn about the Toxics Release Inventory. Environmental Protection Agency (2015) Learn About the Toxics Release Inventory. Accessed 12 Jan 2015
  • TRI Information for Communities. Environmental Protection Agency (2015) TRI Information for Communities. Accessed 26 April 2015
  • Reporting for TRI Facilities. Environmental Protection Agency (2015) Reporting for TRI Facilities. Accessed 12 Jan 2015
  • TRI Timeline.Environmental Protection Agency (2015) TRI Timeline. Accessed 8 May 2015
  • TRI National Analysis Video.Environmental Protection Agency(2015) TRI National Analysis Video. Accessed 8 May 2015

The Prezi included with this activity leads instructors and students through the process of creating social-ecological systems maps. If instructors or students are unfamiliar with these concepts the following resources may be helpful:

  • Thinking in Systems: A Primer (Meadows 2008)
  • Leverage Points. Places to Intervene in a System(Meadows 1999)

Supplementary Material H: Presentation Notes

These notes provide suggested talking points for the activity and can be used to accompany the slides in Supplementary Materials D.

  1. Instructors should first provide an overview of the Toxics Release Inventory (12 minutes). Main talking points include:
  2. The role of historic industrial accidents in raising the public’s awareness about the risks of living near polluting facilities. Examples are provided in PowerPoint slide two. The Union Carbide gas leaks in Bhopal, India and Institute, West Virginia were galvanizing moments in shaping the Emergency Planning and Community-Right-to-Know Act, including the Toxics Release Inventory (EPAa). Instructors should emphasize that these events represent extraordinary, visible and publicized occurrences, yet equally dangerous are the lower-level, ongoing, persistent and legal releases of industrial toxic chemicals that occur constantly at industrial facilities across the country and about which the aggregate effects are unknown. This point is crucial, as the core purpose of the TRI is to raise awareness about these lesser-known releases.
  3. You can make the discussion more learner-centered by asking students the following: What are some major industrial facilities in your hometown? Do you know what products these facilities produce? Do you know if these facilities process toxic chemicals on site? How aware are you of the human and environmental effects of these chemicals? Instructors will want to make the point that many of us know very little about the chemicals used by industries in our communities. The TRI attempts to remedy our lack of awareness, most recently by providing online data tools that are searchable by location. These are available on the TRI homepage at:
  4. The underlying purposes of community-right-to-know policies, which are to: raise the public’s awareness of risk and change; provide information that stakeholders can use to inform decision making and; enhance stakeholder participation in community planning (EPAa). PowerPoint slide three highlights these purposes as they relate to EPCRA.
  5. Instructors can initiate discussion about these points by asking students: Would you move, spend less time outdoors, or change your behavior in other ways if you knew there were high-risk polluting facilities in your neighborhood or community? How adaptable is your daily routine to accommodating behavioral changes related to your fear of hazardous pollutants? What avenues exist in your community for communicating with industry leaders or participating in local planning decisions? Do you know of any community groups working to manage and reduce the risks from industrial pollutants in your town?
  6. The TRI reporting criteria. Facilities must report to the TRI if they (EPAa): 1)use at least one of the approximately 680 chemicals listed by EPA that pose chronic or acute health risks and/or carry risks to the environment; 2) meet designated industry classifications and; 3) have ten or more employees. Additionally, the TRI has an annual reporting cycle that culminates in the publication of a national analysis and online tools designed to help stakeholders understand the chemicals present in their communities. These points are provided in PowerPoint slide four.
  7. To engage students more fully, instructors can ask: how might EPA alter the TRI reporting criteria to strengthen the policy.
  8. Additional talking points and student-centered discussion questions are provided in ESM-H and the supplementary presentations can be used as a road map for this introduction (see ESM-D and ESM-E and Gervich 2015).
  9. Instructors should introduce social-ecological systems mapping as a tool for comprehensively conceptualizing the dynamic and interconnected natural and social elements of environmental conflicts, and identifying leverage points for improving environmental governance among multiple stakeholders. You should also emphasize that while this activity focuses on community-scale conflicts related to industrial pollution, social-ecological systems mapping can be used to reveal patterns of behavior in many contexts. PowerPoint slide five emphasizes these points and outlines a four-step process for drawing social-ecological systems maps. The four-step process is intended to help students draw maps that contain four elements: nodes or parts, relationships, loops and thresholds, and leverage points (10 minutes).
  10. Providing students with an example map of a system with which they are already familiar can help build their conceptual understanding of systems principles. The example I like to use, and that is included in PowerPoint slide six, is about drinking caffeine. ESM-H walks through a process for building a systems map that illustrates behaviors related to caffeine intake in a fun and light-hearted way.
  11. Instructors should introduce social-ecological systems mapping as tool for comprehensively conceptualizing the dynamic and interconnected natural and social elements of environmental conflicts, and identifying leverage points for improving environmental governance among multiple stakeholders. You should also emphasize that while this activity focuses on community-scale conflicts related to industrial pollution, social-ecological systems mapping can be used to reveal patterns of behavior in many contexts. PowerPoint slide five emphasizes these points and outlines a four-step process for drawing social-ecological systems maps. The four-step process is intended to help students draw maps that contain four elements: nodes or parts, relationships, loops and thresholds, and leverage points (10 minutes).
  12. To create an atmosphere of fun and suspense however, I don’t tell the students what system I will use. Instead, ask the following seemingly off-topic questions:
  13. Why do you drink caffeinated beverages? When do you drink them? How do you feel when you drink caffeinated beverages? How do you feel when you drink too much caffeine? If you drink lots of caffeine in the morning, what happens to you in the afternoon? (You can sell this discussion as a distraction by drinking from a coffee/tea mug and acting a little over-caffeinated as you facilitate this conversation.)
  14. After students describe their coffee drinking habits you can reveal the example maps on slide six and point out the four elements of social-ecological systems mapping.
  15. The purpose of the final portion of this activity is for students to practice social-ecological systems mapping by applying the four-step methodology to illustrate the dynamics of the TRI and other cases of hazardous industrial pollution at the community scale. Instructors should introduce National Public Radio’s (2015)Poisoned Places series, which documents case studies of stakeholders working at grassroots levels to reduce the risks from hazardous pollutants in their communities. This portion of the activity uses the NPR series as source material for students’ social-ecological systems maps (25 minutes).
  16. Play the audio for the case study Secret Watch List Reveals Failure to Curb Toxic Air (Shogren 2011 and embedded in slide 7 of ESM-D). Students should fill out the listening guide (ESM-G) while listening to the story.
  17. To facilitate students’ work, it may be helpful to orient them to the sheet before playing the audio. The top portion of the listening table provides space for documenting basic information about each case study including the location, industrial facility and chemicals under focus. The remainder of the table includes three columns where students can document the parts of the system described in the case study and the cause and effect relationships that create and perpetuate the governance and conflict cycles within the system. It may be helpful to pause the story periodically to discuss the relationships among stakeholders in the case study and give students time to take notes.
  18. Once the case study is over, instructors should lead the class through the creation of a social-ecological systems map on the blackboard (see an example on slide 8 in ESM-D which can be shown and used for comparison after the class creates its own). This process should be interactive, with students collaboratively constructing the map by describing the stakeholders, relationships, actions and consequences they observed in the story as the instructor or a volunteer student draws the map on the board. Following this process you can lead a class discussion about the process of drawing the maps.
  19. Instructors can ask the following synthesis questions once students feel the map is complete: What parts of the system did you draw first? Which relationships were the most/least visible in the report? What values and objectives motivate the stakeholders in this case? Which stakeholders have the most (and least) power in this story? What can stakeholders do to gain more power and enhance their abilities to meet their goals? Given limited financial resources, which leverage points do you think offer the best opportunities for reducing conflicts and managing pollutants in this story?
  20. A possible point of emphasis is that creating systems maps is an interpretive process. As a result there are numerous “correct” versions. The only “incorrect” maps are those that are not founded in evidence and make gross characterizations about the stakeholders and dynamics involved.
  21. The class should then watch a second Poisoned Places story, Despite Warnings From Inspector, One Iowa Town Still Battles Toxic Air (Berkes 2011 and included in slide 9 of ESM-D) and use the listening guide (ESM-G) to take notes. Following the video students can work individually or in small groups to create social-ecological systems maps that illustrate the relationships noted in the documentary. An example social-ecological systems map of this case study is provided in slides 10 of ESM-D (again, the example should not be revealed until after students create their maps). The instructor should conclude with a discussion about the similarities and differences among students’ systems diagrams, emphasizing the inclusion of the four elements of systems maps. As a final synthesis activity, instructors should ask students to identify leverage points for managing the system and deescalating the conflicts reported in the story. During this discussion you may want to ask students to distinguish among leverage points used by stakeholders in the story and alternative leverage points that the students, from their perspectives as outsiders to the story, believe offer new opportunities for reducing conflict in this scenario.

Supplementary Material I: Example Optional/Follow-up Poisoned Places Assignment

National Public Radio Poisoned Places Assignment

Objective

Create a social-ecological systems map of the factors involved creating, exacerbating and deescalating conflicts related to hazardous pollution in communities in the United States.

Complete maps will contain the following points

  • Cause and effect relationships among ecological and social factors as well as industrial facilities, community organizations and government agencies;
  • Indicators of directionality for each cause and effect relationship;
  • Labels on feedback loops and thresholds;
  • Identifications and descriptions of leverage points for improving management of hazardous pollution and deescalating environmental conflict among stakeholders;
  • A 750 word interpretive description.

Instructions

  1. Listen to the story Houston's Petrochemical Industry, Source of Jobs and Smog and use the listening guide to document the community/industry loop in this case study;
  2. Select two additional stories from the Poisoned Places website. Listen to them, use the listening guide to take notes, and synthesize your understanding these governance systems to create one social-ecological systems map that comprehensively illustrates the governance relationships among the TRI program and environmental regulators, polluting industries and the communities in which they are located.

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