Abstract:

The dataset contains two data files describing values-based outcomes related to changes in freshwater inflows and associated metrics. Outcomes refer to social, cultural, economic, and health-related ecosystem services or disservices that may result from changing freshwater flow in the watershed of the mid-Texas coast. The outcomes were derived from a co-production process involving several stakeholders in natural resource management, academia, and community organizations. The engagement process used a logic-model approach to frame the discussion and used hypothetical scenarios to derive values and related outcomes of changes to freshwater inflow.

Suggested Citation:

Yoskowitz, David, Christine Hale, Kara Coffey, Diana Del Angel, Mary Kramer, Carla Guthrie, and Caimee Schoenbaechler. 2023. Values-based outcomes related to freshwater inflow in the watersheds of the mid-Texas coast. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/we3sxh6r

Purpose:

To identify social, cultural, economic, and health-related ecosystem services or disservices that may occur with a change in freshwater inflow. This information aims to support the development of a decision tool that includes environmental conditions and socio-economic outcomes.

Data Parameters and Units:

Outcome category (qualitative); value (qualitative); value-based outcome (qualitative); metric (qualitative); and description (qualitative).

Methods:

Data was collected during two stakeholder workshops. The first workshop was held on February 24th, 2022, in Victoria, Texas. The agenda included informational sessions regarding human values and ecosystems, the NOAA RESTORE Science program goals, a co-production overview, an introduction to natural resource management agencies in Texas, and building concept models. Participants split up into facilitated breakout sessions to create a list of social-cultural-economic and human values related to water and a list of potential pathways connecting management strategies to those human values. The values obtained from workshop 1 were grouped into outcome categories: Economic Activity, Human Health, Property Protection, Property Value, Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emission, Social Disruption, Water System Cost, and Existence Value. This output is found in the file HRI_2022_ValueBasedOutcomes.xlsx. The second workshop was held on May 12th, 2022, over Zoom online platform. The goal of workshop 2 was to identify how to measure socio-cultural-economic outcomes related to the freshwater management strategy of agricultural water conservation. The participants were guided through the process of using the Mural tool to vet and confirm social, cultural, and economic outcomes categories within the context of a common water management strategy in Texas. Due to time limitations, the workshop focused on the following value-based outcome categories: Cultural, Economic Activity, Human Health, and Property Value and Protection. Participants were guided through a voting activity to select outcomes they wanted to focus on identifying metrics. Lastly, participants provided their recommendations on metrics and ways to measure and track the chosen value-based outcomes. The summary output of this workshop is summarized in the file HRI_2022_Outcomes_Metrics.xlxs

Provenance and Historical References:

Schwartz, S. A. 2006. Theory of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication and Applications. Comparative Sociology 5, 137–182. DOI:10.1163/156913306778667357 Olander, L., S. Polasky, J. S. K., R. J. Johnston, L. Wainger, D. Saah, L. Maguire, J. Boyd, and D. Yoskowitz. 2017. So You Want Your Research to Be Relevant? Building the Bridge between Ecosystem Services Research and Practice. Ecosystem Services 26 (August): 170–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.06.003.

Individual Files: