Larson Lincoln R, Lauber T Bruce, Kay David L, Cutts Bethany B
Department of Parks, Recreation, & Tourism Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 105 Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
Environ Manage. 2017 Jul;60(1):118-135. doi: 10.1007/s00267-017-0860-1. Epub 2017 Apr 12.
Local governments attempting to respond to environmental change face an array of challenges. To better understand policy responses and factors influencing local government capacity to respond to environmental change, we studied three environmental issues affecting rural or peri-urban towns in different regions of New York State: climate change in the Adirondacks (n = 63 towns), loss of open space due to residential/commercial development in the Hudson Valley (n = 50), and natural gas development in the Southern Tier (n = 62). Our analysis focused on towns' progression through three key stages of the environmental policy process (issue awareness and salience, common goals and agenda setting, policy development and implementation) and the factors that affect this progression and overall capacity for environmental governance. We found that-when compared to towns addressing open space development and natural gas development-towns confronted with climate change were at a much earlier stage in the policy process and were generally less likely to display the essential resources, social support, and political legitimacy needed for an effective policy response. Social capital cultivated through collaboration and networking was strongly associated with towns' policy response across all regions and could help municipalities overcome omnipresent resource constraints. By comparing and contrasting municipal responses to each issue, this study highlights the processes and factors influencing local government capacity to address a range of environmental changes across diverse management contexts.
试图应对环境变化的地方政府面临一系列挑战。为了更好地理解政策应对措施以及影响地方政府应对环境变化能力的因素，我们研究了影响纽约州不同地区农村或城郊城镇的三个环境问题：阿迪朗达克山脉的气候变化（63个城镇）、哈德逊河谷因住宅/商业开发导致的开放空间丧失（50个城镇）以及纽约州南部地区的天然气开发（62个城镇）。我们的分析聚焦于城镇在环境政策过程的三个关键阶段（问题认知与突出性、共同目标与议程设定、政策制定与实施）中的进展情况，以及影响这一进展和环境治理总体能力的因素。我们发现，与应对开放空间开发和天然气开发的城镇相比，面临气候变化的城镇在政策过程中处于更早阶段，并且通常不太可能展现出有效政策应对所需的基本资源、社会支持和政治合法性。通过合作与网络建设培育的社会资本与所有地区城镇的政策应对密切相关，并且能够帮助市政当局克服普遍存在的资源限制。通过比较和对比市政当局对每个问题的应对措施，本研究突出了影响地方政府在不同管理背景下应对一系列环境变化能力的过程和因素。
