Local Government Capacity to Respond to Environmental Change: Insights from Towns in New York State.
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.
['Larson|Lincoln R|LR|', 'Lauber|T Bruce|TB|', 'Kay|David L|DL|', 'Cutts|Bethany B|BB|']
D057231:Climate Change D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources D058735:Environmental Policy D006801:Humans D009111:Local Government D009518:New York D011050:Policy Making D012424:Rural Population D014505:Urban Population
Local government Climate change Natural gas development Environmental policy Open space development Social capital