Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in the United States and every Illinois county has already experienced it severely enough to declare a Presidential Disaster. The state's municipal stormwater infrastructure has been insufficient for flood management in many areas for some time and those who reside in rural and other underserved areas are especially vulnerable. Nature-based solutions, also known as green infrastructure practices, provide flood-related disaster mitigation. Widespread implementation is needed for communities in the face of climate change and aging gray infrastructure, which limits the growth of rural communities. However, because nature-based solutions are relatively new, the lack of knowledge about maintenance presents a barrier to adoption at a scale large enough to make significant impact.To address this, an Illinois Extension team will create an in-depth science-based maintenance curriculum to assist municipalities with overcoming the barriers to adopting nature-based solutions and to prepare them for flood-related disasters. Guided by community-based needs surveys, the online course will be developed and made available through the Learn @ Illinois Extension platform (powered by Moodle). Content will include a proven approach to designing, installing, and maintaining native plants used at Extension's demonstration landscape. Digital assets (e.g., videos, virtual training tools, activities, quizzes, etc.) will be integrated into course modules, which will be evaluated and improved based on feedback. The curriculum will round out a suite of nature-based solution trainings for communities developed in bi-state collaboration with Purdue University, which will provide review and digital assets. Illinois Extension will disseminate the course in multiple ways and expect it to be applicable throughout the Cooperative Extension network. The anticipated impact is having municipalities with better trained staff, who can implement and maintain nature-based solutions, increasing community resilience to flooding disasters.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
Goals Develop an in-depth science-based maintenance curriculum to assist rural and other underserved communities in overcoming the barriers to adopting nature-based solutions to prepare them for flood-related disasters and increase their storm sewer capacity to buffer sudden inundations.Objectives Engage communities by surveying those that are on the precipice of adopting nature-based solutions.Adapt the monitoring and maintenance approach from a model demonstration landscape managed by Extension.Develop and pilot a comprehensive maintenance curriculum that overcomes barriers to nature-based solutions and sets communities up for success.
Project Methods
EffortsExtension staff, with subject matter expertise on nature-based solutions, will develop a training with modules that examine the science, best practices, and research surrounding nature-based solution maintenance. To better understand the needs of communities on the precipice of adopting these practices, the project team will identify and survey them to determine barriers to maintenance and specific questions to ensure topics are tailored to their conditions.Course topics will include, at minimum, how to design, install, and establish native plants. Timelines, procedures, potential issues and how to address and overcome them will be included as well as identification of issues and how to address them to ensure long-term project viability. The monitoring and maintenance approach will follow the one used by a successful demonstration landscape managed by Extension. Digital assets (e.g. videos, virtual training tools, activities, quizzes, etc.) will be integrated into online course modules and made available through the Learn @ Illinois Extension platform (powered by Moodle). These learner-centric modules will explore the tenets of maintenance, as well as review research on best practice methods that are believed to improve project outcomes. Participants will then have a common framework from which to create their own projects and/or discern, select, and work with stormwater professionals, such as landscape architects and designers, with a better understanding of what is needed to create projects they can successfully maintain for years to come. Illinois Extension plans to model this curriculum after the Master Gardener online training, which is comprised of several modules and a final quiz, all completed at the participant's own pace within a three-month period. As such, the nature-based solutions maintenance modules will be asynchronous and incorporate quizzes and other interactive elements. Some modules may feature videos containing interviews with managers overseeing successful nature-based practices, along with municipal staff members in the process of considering or already implementing such practices. Other modules will have videos and photos depicting hands-on maintenance practices. Course forums will enable participants to connect and converse with one another. Modules will be evaluated and improved based on feedback from participants, who will gain scientific knowledge, common language around nature-based solution maintenance, and a framework from which to build their own installations and/or work with contracted firms.EvaluationThe central goal of this effort is to increase knowledge of, and comfort with, nature-based solution maintenance to break down this barrier to installation and to ensure that projects are well-managed and have longevity. Assessment of program effectiveness will include both factual tests to assess content proficiency, as well as self-reports covering participants' confidence in their ability to apply the information to projects, thereby overcoming the barrier. Proficiency will be measured through pre- and post-training quizzes, with a score of 80% or above indicating mastery of the material. Participants' willingness to install nature-based solutions will be measured using a retrospective pre-post format administered in a post-training survey. The assessments and post-training survey will be administered to participants once the modules are made available to them. Information on the number of each category of participant will be tracked by the Extension's Evaluation Specialist.