Browsing by Author "Handmaker, Orli"
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Item Connecting and Restoring Ramsey(Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2017) Baehm, Dani; Handmaker, Orli; Kieser, Nick; Kreiter, Emily; McNiel, Dan; Shavit-Lonstein, NoahThis project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. Ramsey is fortunate to have several public parks for residents to use, but not all residents have the same level of access to these parks. Students in Dr. Mae Davenport’s Sustainable Land Use Planning and Policy course identified key principles to guide sustainable land use planning (community connectivity, ecological connectivity, and equity and accessibility), and reported results from a pilot survey administered to Ramsey residents regarding their perceptions of natural areas in Ramsey, and their access to and use of parks and open space in the community. Based on these preliminary results, students made recommendations and an action plan for how to best move forward with park and trail planning. A final report and presentation are available.Item What is the Value of Knowing the Value of Water?(2019-08) Handmaker, OrliThis qualitative value of information study seeks to understand why decades worth of information on the economic and social values of clean water has yet to be incorporated into mainstream decision-making. I conducted interviews across private, non-profit, and state government organizations throughout Minnesota to understand how these institutions consider water value information and to discern the factors that determine its utility, relevance, and influence in diverse decision-contexts. I found that all sectors acknowledge the value of clean water, but that awareness of clean water value does not always lead to actions. Challenges with the accessibility, relevance, and credibility of water value information minimize its utility in decision-making; improved collaboration and communication between researchers and decision-makers will help address these barriers. My findings illuminate the shortcomings of economic valuation and highlight how future research can be more influential.