{"id":12319,"date":"2015-11-30T08:35:17","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T13:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=12319"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:08:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:08:53","slug":"get-off-my-lawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=12319","title":{"rendered":"Get Off My Lawn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A UNC researcher strives to give real advice to the Albemarle-Pamlico community about its peskiest neighbor: saltwater. (photo by Mary Lide Parker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>hen Todd BenDor was a kid, a bunch of rowdy teenagers poured salt all over his best friend\u2019s lawn. Not surprisingly, the grass\u00a0died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe salt destroyed the fungal community that lives in the soil,\u201d BenDor, now a professor of city and regional planning, says. \u201cIn \u2018War of the Worlds,\u2019 H.G.<\/span> Wells talked about how it\u2019s \u2018the microbes\u2019 that saved humanity. Well, he was right. In this case, it\u2019s the fungal communities that allow the plants to\u00a0grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, BenDor, whose research<\/a> was recently cited by President Obama<\/a>, works as part of a team studying saltwater intrusion \u2014 the movement of saltwater from the ocean to the freshwater coastal plain \u2014 around North Carolina\u2019s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula. The NSF<\/span> Coastal SEES<\/span><\/a> (Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability) collaborative project<\/a> brings together researchers from East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, and Duke\u00a0University.<\/p>\n

Why all the fuss over this area of North Carolina? Well, the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula presents an interesting case: The Outer Banks creates a barrier between the salty ocean and the freshwater Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. However, small breaks in the islands provide saltwater entry into the bay. \u201cThere\u2019s an ongoing battle of freshwater and saltwater,\u201d BenDor says. \u201cThat\u2019s why this area in North America is so unbelievably special \u2014 because everything here has adapted to survive. Many of the creatures that live in this area can withstand a fairly decent range of freshwater to saltwater. And that\u2019s kind of\u00a0amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not all life can sustain itself here. Saltwater intrusion can affect the drinking water, lead to flooding, and change the composition of the ecosystem \u2014 like crop and timber yields, animal life, and natural filtration. It even affects the economy, as timber companies, agricultural operations, commercial fishing, and outdoor recreation businesses abound on the\u00a0peninsula.<\/p>\n

All is not lost, however, as the saltwater intrusion has yet to become bad enough to cause such drastic changes. That\u2019s why BenDor and this cross-functional team of scientists are studying the problem now. The five-year project, which began in January 2015, will develop a toolset to teach the Albemarle-Pamlico community about saltwater intrusion, present the possible outcomes it can lead to, and suggest a plan on how to sustain the coastal plain moving\u00a0forward.<\/p>\n

So far, the team has installed monitoring stations to accurately gage sea level rise and salinity at several locations along the coastal plain including the Alligator National Wildlife Refuge and Goose Creek State Park. They\u2019ve also developed a Saltwater Intrusion Vulnerability Index (SIVI<\/span>) to assess the level of saltwater intrusion risk. SIVI<\/span> takes elevation, proximity to saltwater sources, and water characteristics into account. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out how the coast actually processes saltwater,\u201d BenDor\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

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BenDor\u2019s role in the project involves the social science behind saltwater intrusion. \u201cI\u2019m looking at how it\u2019s impacting people, and how people are impacting it,\u201d he says. He and his PhD student, Kristen Vitro, are surveying the Albemarle-Pamlico population \u2014 specifically residential landowners, land managers, and community stakeholders in the areas that are subject to salinization\u00a0risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking these individuals how they perceive this risk, and to what extent (and how) they believe they can mitigate this risk,\u201d Vitro says. \u201cOne of the key aspects we are interested in is the timeframe in which risk perception operates. These coastal communities deal with short-term, storm-related issues on a regular basis, so our survey questions focus on how individuals respond to long-term risks associate with\u00a0salinization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Project members hope to learn how to best present information about saltwater intrusion and risk factors to the community and stakeholders, making it easy to understand as well as motivational. \u201cA lot of climate change information is presented in a negative, doom and gloom manner,\u201d Vitro says. \u201cWe are interested in communicating risk information as an opportunity for\u00a0resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

BenDor wants to know how people will react to the news of saltwater intrusion. For example, one landowner\u2019s reaction to this news might be to build a flood wall, \u201cbut really interesting things might happen if said landowner does that,\u201d BenDor says. For one, that flood wall could push more saltwater onto the property of neighboring landowners, which would actually change the way saltwater intrusion affects the region. \u201cThere are all these opportunities for conflict,\u201d he says, \u201cbut if you tell that landowner what that decision could do to her neighbor, she might change her mind about building that flood\u00a0wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

BenDor wants the Albemarle-Pamlico community to be thinking about these things. \u201cThere is a lot of environmental communication and education that needs to happen,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of these residents, in theory, have some agency in the landscape. You live here, you don\u2019t want to leave, so what are you going to do about\u00a0it?\u201d<\/p>\n

After the five years is up, BenDor and the other researchers hope to apply what they discovered to help residents, community organizations, and local and state governments craft a strategy for dealing with increased saltwater intrusion, whether that\u2019s helping people with relocation or installing levies along the coast. \u201cWhat we are going to do at the end of this is provide advice,\u201d BenDor says. \u201cReal advice that is\u00a0useful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Todd BenDor is an associate professor and director of the P.D. program in the department of city and<\/span> regional planning in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC<\/span>-Chapel\u00a0Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kristen Vitro is a UNC<\/span>-Chapel Hill PhD student in the Department of City and Regional\u00a0Planning. <\/em><\/p>\n

By Alyssa LaFaro,<\/em> Endeavors magazine
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A UNC researcher strives to give real advice to the Albemarle-Pamlico community about its peskiest neighbor: 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