This article examines how clean air advocates in the San Joaquin Valley amplified a collective action frame of air pollution as a public health crisis. This frame serves to mobilize communities and attribute responsibility to relevant authorities while countering the San Joaquin Valley Air District’s narrative that places blame on the public and unalterable aspects of the physical environment, characterizing the problem as largely unchangeable. Core questions are: How did advocates facilitate frame construction and sustain resonance across time and place? How did this frame compel urgent action, including representational change in the Valley Air District Governing Board through the adoption of Senate Bill 719? Findings show that advocates counter the San Joaquin Valley Air District’s frame by shifting the focus on the negative impacts to public health and quality of life, particularly in disproportionately impacted environmental justice communities. Building and leveraging a resonant frame required strategic “stretch” in capacity while cultivating collective identity and solidarity. Within the Valley Air District, the change in governing board composition has measurably impacted dialog and provided a more welcoming reception of public participation at meetings, with the doctor and scientist appointees providing critical perspectives and contributing to subtle shifts in the agency’s dominant messaging and decision making. While a public health frame has taken shape around air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley, these efforts are not complete or without ongoing strain.

Four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington State generate hydropower and allow for regional agriculture and barge shipping to Portland OR. However, the dams impede the migration of local salmon populations ( Oncorhynchus spp .), which are in steep decline, and drastically impact the populations of salmon and orca whales, for whom salmon are a primary food source. For years, environmental groups have argued for breaching the dams; other interests counter that the dams are too critical to the economy of the region to lose; and federal agencies assert that the dams can remain and salmon populations will recover with mitigation techniques. Scientific and economic analyses, litigation, and elected officials’ efforts have not been able to move the issue towards a solution. Readers will examine the interests of primary actors in the issue, how they influence the policy process, the role of scientific and economic analyses, and possible approaches for resolving the issue.

Natural resource managers often use quantitative methods to characterize and manage ecosystems. A firm understanding of these methods, ranging from simple counts to complex models, is critical in conducting accurate population and community assessments. Students can gain an advantage in understanding these methods through early exposure and contextual examples. This fictional case study follows three American Fisheries Society club members who perform an ecological assessment of a landowner’s ponds. The club members use multiple sampling methods and analyses to answer the landowner’s questions. In this study, students are introduced to common assessment metrics, such as community patterns (richness, diversity, evenness, and similarity), abundance estimates (mark-recapture, depletion, swept-area, and line-transect), size structure (proportional stock density), and growth estimates (absolute, relative, and instantaneous growth rates; von Bertalanffy growth model). Students will also interpret results and identify physical or biological factors that may influence those results. After completing this case study, students will be able to describe the need for population and community assessments and apply these assessments to various scenarios.

Environmental degradation and climate change have become core social and political issues. Subsequently, it is critical to educate environmental studies and sciences students with respect to the appropriate conceptual models and the relevant skill sets to become effective environmental problem solvers. Spatial analysis, often implemented through the use of geographic information systems, is a key tool for exploring unique combinations of place, space, and time. Spatial analysis uses quantitative, formal techniques to facilitate an in-depth look at how environmental phenomena manifest themselves in a particular geographic location, and is an ideal fit within environmental case study pedagogy. For one, environmental problems inherently have spatial boundaries. Further, case studies regularly accommodate multiple variables. Additionally, spatial analysis can be a teaching tool that challenges students to think outside their preconceived worldviews. For these reasons, we offer this special collection of Case Studies in the Environment, which featuredss manuscripts on case studies from faculty and students at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI). Academics, researchers, and students presented with the pieces in this special collection will come away with an understanding of a wide range of spatial analysis techniques, and how they can be applied to creating actionable information around a variety of environmental topics.

The initial estimate of the flow rate of now liberated crude oil following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform turned out to be a factor of 50 times lower than the physical reality. This initial estimate, provided by the corporate owner of the oil platform, British Petroleum (BP), was a leak rate of 1,000 barrels per day (bpd). This number was not based on any scientific approach and was never put into context, for the media or the public, of whether this was a big or small number (i.e., how many bpd is equivalent to filling a bathtub for 24 h) and was simply accepted as the physical reality. As a consequence, the initial response to the disaster would plan for a scope that was much smaller than what ultimately unfolded. Furthermore, since 1,000 bpd turns out to be a small number, the initial strategy was based on the belief that the leak could be patched and therefore a fix was manageable. Here we show that (a) simple physical reasoning at the time of the occurrence would have lead to initial estimates that were close to the final estimate (determined 2 months after the initial incident) of about 50,000 bpd; (b) there was an unnecessarily slow time evolution to involve the scientific community to gather relevant data that would vastly improve the estimate and; (c) this slow evolution in unmasking the physical reality of the situation prevented a more robust governmental response to the problem. Even though the government, through National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), revised the leak rate to 5,000 bpd one week after the disaster, another month would elapse before it was officially recognized that the leak rate was essentially 10 times higher.

Environmental crises require collective and sustained action. However, pro-environmental action (PEA) has been mostly approached as an individual process. Further, conventional approaches to promote PEA assume an information-processing model of actions based on knowledge acquisition, which has been critiqued. Recent environmental education approaches emphasize more complex, non-linear models of action and focus on the acquisition of action-competence, which allows students to feel empowered to act in their local communities. Extending this approach, the potential of using the school as a base to involve other members of a community to engage in collective pro-environmental practices is a promising, but under-researched, direction to address sustainability issues. In this school-based case-study, we explored the development of action-competence, particularly the processes that lead up to such competence, by facilitating an urban farming project (40 students, 12–13 years old, tracked for 10 months). We studied students’ interaction with farming structures and entities closely, taking an analysis approach inspired by: (1) recent work highlighting the affective-aesthetic appeal of environmental entities and (2) embodied cognition models. Based on these data and analysis, we show how meaningful and embodied encounters with nature contribute to the enhancement of students’ environmental “action-space”. More interestingly, sharing of these “action-spaces” with adults, through various social experiences, motivated adults to participate in PEAs. This case-study is relevant to environmental educators and researchers seeking to design proactive interventions and explore general principles underlying collective environment-oriented actions.

Modern economies cannot function without electricity, and production of electric power affects citizens in many ways, including climate change. Production of electricity requires investments that easily reach billions of dollars, and streams of investment capital must be perpetual to procure fuel, build and maintain plants, and transmit electricity to customers. This case study addresses whether a California decision relevant to investments about generating electricity adequately considered competing concerns. In 2009, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E, a private, investor-owned utility) applied to renew the operating licenses of its two nuclear reactors at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (the “plant”). By 2016, PG&E had decided not to seek license renewal and asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to approve a price increase for its electricity to pay for specified expenses in closing the plant, which generated 24% of PG&E’s electricity. Four environmental groups and two labor organizations supported PG&E, and CPUC approved most elements of PG&E’s plan in 2018. PG&E’s application generated considerable debate during the CPUC process, and multiple organizations argued that PG&E’s plan was flawed. Two of the protests were from environmental groups favoring nuclear power as mitigation for climate change. Nuclear reactors generate electricity with uranium and have low emissions of carbon dioxide, the key source of climate change. This case study summarizes the competing arguments relevant to energy investments and climate change. Was the decision to close the plant in the best interest of the PG&E customers and the residents and taxpayers of California?

Urban planning can serve a vital role in meeting the goals of education for sustainable development (ESD); it could potentially provide future planners with the environmental considerations necessary to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This article presents findings from a quantitative study of planning students’ experiences with Project- and Problem-Based Learning (PPBL). Graduate planning students in an environmental planning class were divided into two groups according to their course assignment, PPBL or non-PPBL, and given pre- and post-questionnaires, with questions to grade statements on environmental attitudes and behaviors. PPBL students reported a statistically significant change in environmental behavior involving others, while neither behavior nor attitudes changed significantly for students in the control group. Then, semi-open interviews were conducted with 11 of the students 3 years later. The interviews indicate that PPBL students remembered more content related to their assignments and felt they received more types of planning experiences and tools than those in the control group.

Today’s students arrive to college with increased environmental awareness but often without the skills necessary to sort, interpret, and critically think about global environmental change or their relationship to it. To address the barrier of perceived student powerlessness in global environmental problems, we designed a transdisciplinary project for students to begin to take ownership of their learning experience, gain competencies in basic social science research methods, and explore agency with a community partner. In this case study, we narrate one exercise in which students created a public product of collated newspaper articles related to contemporary water issues in Oregon. The project involved the creation of an online database that resulted in a learning tool for future courses, a base for transdisciplinary research, and a deliverable for the public. The exercise proved valuable in demonstrating how students can engage with concepts of activist applied linguistics to evaluate positionalities of news sources while situating themselves as active and engaged members in their local environment. Homework assignments throughout the course revealed that students (1) gradually reported more positive and action-oriented views of their role in the environment and (2) developed greater competency in weighing the quality of media sources around environmental issues. We conclude with guided learning questions for faculty interested in implementing a similar exercise as well as suggested student discussion questions.

The invasive snakehead fish, which is native to Africa, Asia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, has been found in nine states in the United States and has notably developed a reproducing population in South Florida, Maryland, and Hawaii. This case study discusses the environmental impact and policies surrounding the snakehead fish population in the United States’ waters, as well as three other fishes (smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and trout) that are native to some bodies of water in the United States, but non-native to others. This case study will examine the paradox that exists when the support of anglers and/or other important stakeholders in wildlife management does not match the potential a species has to damage a native habitat. Readers should be able to think critically about how people have come to define what is seemingly good for the environment based on personal human interest rather than environmental interest. They should also think about how easily the environment can be changed, even permanently, due to small cases of invasive species spreading rapidly from human practices.

Many scientific research projects carried out in developing countries gather data and fail to return any summary of the findings to the community that provided the data. Residents from communities experiencing water issues are therefore deprived of effective participation in the use of findings, since communities might be seen as only a source of data. Indigenous writers have revealed the injustice of this reality and have suggested that this is typical of colonial or ‘colonising’ research methods. It is concerning because accessing research knowledge encourages communities to examine their issues and empowers them to formulate solutions. Inspired by decolonising methodologies, we explored different ‘decolonising’ approaches to returning research findings to participant communities using the results of a recent water research project conducted in Ndola, Copperbelt Province, Zambia. In this case study, we describe participant communities experience regarding access to research findings and conclude that face-to-face discussion is the preferred approach to returning water research findings in Ndola.

More efficient agricultural water use sounds uncontroversial. Due to increased agricultural efficiency, about 300,000 acre-feet 1 of water per year is made available and is being reallocated from the Imperial Irrigation District to Los Angeles, San Diego and Coachella. This increase in efficiency and transfer of conserved water, however, is predicted to cause a suite of environmental and public health harms as the region’s agricultural sump (the Salton Sea) shrinks. Southern Californian water politics are famously messy, contentious and high stakes. The State struggles with the need to increase its use efficiency and decrease its overall use of its allocation of Colorado River water that supplies Californian south coast cities and inland agriculture. Local, State and federal parties involved in these water allocation decisions conflict over how to mitigate the externalities as there is no clear assignment of liabilities. This case study uses historical documents and recent policy elite interviews to construct a broad understanding of the nature of the dilemma. By engaging with this case, readers will better understand the relative positions of the rural water supplier and the urban water users in the largest water transfer in US history, and understand that increasing use efficiency in one arena—agriculture—does not always work out best for the environment.

The first utility-scale (75 MW) wind farm facility in Indonesia (the “Sidrap” project) was launched in South Sulawesi in early 2018. In this case study, we assess how several factors contributed to the successful development of the Sidrap project including strong signals of support from the Indonesian Government; long-term local presence of private sector partners; familiarity of private sector partners with the risks and nuances of investing in Indonesia; and an innovative private-public sector partnership model. In the last 2 years, Indonesia’s electricity sector has changed much in terms of pricing policy and private sector involvement. Much effort has been directed toward the Indonesian Government meeting its renewable energy deployment target of 23% of the total energy mix by 2025. The question remains, however, on whether Indonesia will be able to develop additional renewable energy projects to Sidrap in the future, given the continuing changes and uncertainty in Indonesian’s renewable energy policy and politics.

Plastic pollution in oceans, also known as marine debris, is a growing problem at local and global scales. Anthropogenic marine debris poses a serious threat to many marine species, both through physical harm such as ingestion or entanglement and by carrying toxins and pathogens. This debris accumulates in oceanic gyres, concentrating these effects in some specific areas. In addition, marine debris may have devastating impacts on tourism and fishing-based economies, especially where ocean currents direct this debris. Recently, a nonprofit organization called The Ocean Cleanup proposed the first large-scale in situ marine debris removal project. The Ocean Cleanup is a project attempting to use large, floating, semi-fixed screens to harness ocean currents and accumulate debris, where it can be efficiently collected and disposed of or recycled. The project currently is working on implementing itself in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” in the North Pacific Gyre. We examine this project case, as it is the first organization attempting to clean up marine debris at this scale. Understanding the potential efficacy and limitations of The Ocean Cleanup Project as a case study can give critical insights into how other projects could be created in the future to address marine plastic pollution worldwide. Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to assess a marine debris cleanup can inform both a nuanced evaluation of the specific case as well as provide a means to explore marine debris as a complex, global environmental problem.

Instructors, particularly those teaching public policy, often wish to incorporate the development of practical skills into their course assessments. These can range from writing briefs to novel research papers. Instructors also often desire to increase the rigor and utility of these assignments. More often than not, a skill may be developed, but the product is discarded at the end of the course. This article describes the incorporation of writing case studies for Case Studies in the Environment into an upper-level undergraduate course that also included graduate students. Students were required to meet the submission criteria for the journal and were encouraged, but not required, to submit their cases for publication after the course ended. While the course was small, and thus the projects manageable, the following discusses how a team approach could be employed in other classes and how students rose to the occasion in creating potentially publishable work.

Energy poses challenges to environmental studies because of climate change and other effects, and field trips are indispensable aids to learning. They enable students to see situations first-hand, and many are joyous and fun, such as field trips to forests, wetlands, wildlife reserves, or communities exhibiting positive contributions to safeguarding the natural world. Field trips to the built environment, especially those illustrating sites with raging controversies or past catastrophes are equally important in helping students turn theory into understanding of real situations. Chernobyl, one of the two worst nuclear power plant disasters, provided the venue for a field trip examining the strengths and weaknesses of nuclear power. Students had 3 weeks of preparatory classwork before departing for Kyiv, Ukraine. They spent 2 weeks there, with 1 day touring the Exclusion Zone surrounding the Chernobyl plant. Background work included basic concepts and units for measuring radiation and their biological and medical effects, types of nuclear power plants, disaster planning and response, Ukrainian history, and details of the Chernobyl accident and its effects. Participants heard from a wide variety of speakers, who presented details of the accident, its lingering consequences, efforts of the Ukrainian government and various NGOs to deal with the consequences, and Ukrainian plans for new nuclear power plants. Participants also heard both strong pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear proponents. At the end, students prepared a paper on the lessons about nuclear power from Chernobyl. Evaluations of the experience indicated the trip’s objectives were achieved. For some, the expedition proved life-altering.

Many indigenous communities across Latin America depend on forests for livelihood. In eastern Bolivia, indigenous communities face increasing challenges in forest management due to insecure land tenure, lack of capacity, and state policies that favor extractivism and export-oriented agriculture. This case study examines the dilemma of forest management in the Guarayos Indigenous Territory, with a particular focus on the influence of conflictive policies under Evo Morales administration. Using a combination of literature reviews, semi-structured interviews, and land use/land cover analysis, we investigated the drivers behind the challenges that the Guarayos indigenous community is facing in the forest and land governance and explore potential solutions. We found that deforestation within the Guarayos Indigenous Territory from 2000 to 2017 was primarily driven by agricultural commodity production. Despite its promises on protecting nature and the indigenous peoples, the government weakened the Guarayos indigenous people’s governance capacity through failure of forest law enforcement, prioritization of extractivism and export-oriented agriculture, and support for land titling of external entities. We presented these findings through a case narrative featuring the president of Guarayos indigenous government as the decision-maker. This case study provides an illustrative example of the challenges and management strategies in indigenous land and forest governance in the Latin American context. A Spanish version of this case study is available at https://www.learngala.com/cases/bolivia-forests-esp .

This case study introduces students to the impacts that wildfires have on water resources as well as the challenges associated with managing these risks. By examining the development of a collaborative watershed group galvanized by the 2012 High Park Fire in Colorado, the case engages with the longstanding conundrum of how better to align ecological and social scales in natural resources management. It explores the role that collaborative groups are playing in addressing water resources problems at the watershed scale despite fragmented governance at that scale. A phased case study format allows students to investigate the motivations of diverse stakeholders and appreciate the challenges faced in watershed-based collaboration after a catalyzing event, such as a wildfire. Upon completion of the lesson, students will be able to (1) explain wildfires’ impacts to water resources and stakeholders; (2) assess the challenges and benefits of approaching management based on the physical boundaries of a watershed, rather than political boundaries; (3) identify and interrogate how collaborative watershed groups form as well as the factors that are key to their success; and (4) evaluate the outcomes of these collaborative efforts and their ongoing strengths and opportunities as well as their limitations and challenges. This line of inquiry is increasingly significant as collaborative watershed management groups proliferate in the United States, in many instances catalyzed by a disaster. Ultimately, this case study explores how collaborative watershed groups emerge and the role(s) they play in tackling long-term, multi-jurisdictional, and watershed-scale management challenges.

A heavily armed militia occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge from January 2 through February 21, 2016. The standoff began as a protest against the prosecution and incarceration of two local ranchers, although there has been a long-standing animus among some ranchers in the western United States. A brief history of the Bureau of Land Management lands is presented, with a focus on the management of grazing in the West. Some ranchers, such as Cliven Bundy of Nevada, have refused to pay grazing fees because of their profound hostility toward the federal government, and an earlier 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, set the stage for the occupation at Malheur.

Deforestation is a primary contributor to global climate change. When the forest is felled and the vegetation is burnt or decomposes, carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere. An approach designed to stem climate change is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a global financial mechanism that requires intricate governance requirements to be met—a significant challenge in the developing areas. In Panama, the government is responsible for designing and implementing a national REDD+ strategy with support from multilateral organizations. This case study is built through the experience of a public hearing on the potential implementation of REDD+ in the highly contested Upper Bayano Watershed in eastern Panama. The Upper Bayano Watershed is composed of vast and diverse forest ecosystems. It forms a part of the Choco-Darien ecoregion, a global biodiversity hotspot, and is home to two Indigenous groups (Kuna and Embera) and populations of migrant farmers ( colonos ), all with different histories, traditions, and worldviews concerning forests and land management, often resulting in territorial conflicts. A major socioecological issue facing the region is deforestation, which is driving biodiversity loss and landscape change and threatening traditional livelihoods and cultures. The public hearing stimulates difficult discussions about access to land, tenure security, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, identity, power, trade-offs, and social justice. The case is designed to confront participants with the challenges of implementing ambitious, international, and often-prescriptive natural resource policies at local levels.