"We cannot do it alone:" an interpretive policy analysis of urban stormwater governance

450 Pages·2013·2.9 MB·English

by  Travaline, Katharine Antonia

“We Cannot Do It Alone:”
An Interpretive Policy Analysis of Urban Stormwater Governance
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty
of
Drexel University
by
Katharine Antonia Travaline
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
October 2012
© Copyright 2012
Katharine Antonia Travaline. All Rights Reserved.
ii

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to a number of people who participated in this project. First and
foremost, I thank the residents and community leaders of Point Breeze for being more
than gracious with their time and energy. I also thank the members of the contracted
research team who allowed me to participate in their learning process (Franco Montalto,
Alex Waldman, Chariss McAfee, Charles Loomis, Juliet Geldi, Gavin Riggall, Timothy
Bartrand); officials of the U.S. EPA and the City of Philadelphia (MOS, MOTU, PPR,
Streets, and PWD, especially Laureen Boles and Glen Abrams); and representatives of
NRDC, ASLF, CWA, PennFuture, POP, and PHS. I am particularly grateful for my
dissertation committee: Christian Hunold’s invaluable guidance and support; Franco
Montalto’s generosity of time and advice; Amy Slaton’s encouragement to be an activist
scholar; Richardson Dilworth’s knowledge of local policy; and Peregrine Schwartz-
Shea’s expertise in interpretive methodology and public administration. I would also like
to thank a number of Drexel professors (Robert Brulle, Sue Kilham, Kali Gross, Bob
Stokes, Sue Stein, and Mary Ebeling) and departments (History & Politics, especially the
STS program; Biodiversity, Earth, & Environmental Science, especially Susan Cole;
Civil, Architectural, & Environmental Engineering and the Drexel Engineering Cities
Initiative, including Steve O’Connor and especially Jen Britton and Patricia Gallagher;
the Office of International Programs; and the Office of Graduate Studies) as well as
Dvora Yanow and Dorian Warren. Finally, I thank my family for their love and
confidence in me and I thank my friends for their understanding and welcome
distractions. The biggest thank you of all goes to my husband and best friend, Ryan, for
his love, patience, constant support, and words of wisdom, encouragement, and humor.
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Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1
CHAPTER 2. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................12
Water Resource Management in the U.S. ..............................................................12
Stormwater Management Problems and U.S Policy ..............................................14
Green Infrastructure and U.S. Water Policy ..........................................................19
Water Resource Management in Philadelphia .......................................................24
Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters Program .................28
Neighborhood Case Study .....................................................................................31
The Researcher: A Multiplicity of Roles ...............................................................34
Summary ................................................................................................................34
CHAPTER 3: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE ........................................................36
Deliberative Democracy ........................................................................................36
Governance ...........................................................................................................43
Water Management ................................................................................................52
Interpretive Policy Analysis ...................................................................................61
Contributions of this Study: Integrating Multiple Fields .......................................74
Summary ................................................................................................................88
CHAPTER 4: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS .........................................................90
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The Process ............................................................................................................90
The Framework ......................................................................................................91
Summary ..............................................................................................................109
CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ................................................111
Research Design...................................................................................................111
Case Study ...........................................................................................................114
Methods................................................................................................................117
Analysis of Meaning ............................................................................................131
Limitations and Delimitations ..............................................................................137
Evaluative Standards ............................................................................................140
Ethics....................................................................................................................146
Summary ..............................................................................................................149
CHAPTER 6: AN INTRODUCTION TO ANALYSIS ..................................................151
Watershed-based Management ............................................................................151
Land-Water-Infrastructure ...................................................................................152
Triple Bottom Line .............................................................................................156
Summary ..............................................................................................................158
CHAPTER 7: INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION .................................................160
Governance Framework: A Collaborative Approach to City Government .........165
Political Pluralism: the Perfect Storm ..................................................................167
Learning to Collaborate .......................................................................................183
Collaborating to Learn .........................................................................................193
Summary ..............................................................................................................233
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CHAPTER 8: GOVERNMENT-PUBLIC COLLABORATION ....................................237
Part I: Why Should PWD and the Public Collaborate? .......................................239
Part II: How does PWD and the Public Collaborate? ..........................................253
Part III: Multiple Meanings of Government-Public Collaboration......................326
Summary ..............................................................................................................380
CHAPTER 9. CONCLUSION.........................................................................................384
A Stormwater Governance Network ....................................................................384
Inter-Agency Collaboration .................................................................................385
Government-Public Collaboration .......................................................................388
“We Call It Green Infrastructure:” Multiple Policy Meanings and Stormwater
Governance ..........................................................................................................391

Urban Stormwater Governance and Democracy: Critical Analysis and
Recommendations ................................................................................................393

Suggestions for Future Research .........................................................................400

Conclusion ...........................................................................................................401
References ........................................................................................................................403
Appendix A Method of Quoting ......................................................................................429
Appendix B Community Member Interview Protocol.....................................................431
Appendix C Policy Official Interview Protocol...............................................................433
Appendix D Point Breeze Green Infrastructure Study Questionnaire .............................435
Appendix E Glossary of Acronyms .................................................................................436
Vita ..................................................................................................................................438
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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Concepts and Exploratory Questions ...................................................................6
Table 3.1 Catalysts of Adaptive Water Management ........................................................58
Table 5.1 Total Documents Reviewed .............................................................................120
Table 5.2 Total Media Sources Reviewed .......................................................................120
Table 5.3 Documents used to analyze official policy discourse ......................................122
Table 5.4 Websites used to analyze neighborhood discourses ........................................122
Table 5.5 Summary of Recorded and Analyzed Fieldnotes ............................................126
Table 5.6 Summary of Policy Interviews ........................................................................130
Table 5.7 Summary of Neighborhood Interviews............................................................130
Table 7.1 Related City Initiatives ....................................................................................172
Table 8.1 Summary of GSI Likes, Dislikes, and Synergies.............................................291
Table 8.2 Interview Question Outline ..............................................................................300
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List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Historic Delaware Waterfront ..........................................................................25
Figure 2.2 Philadelphia: A bustling waterway industrial hub............................................25
Figure 2.3 Philadelphia’s historic and current waterways .................................................26
Figure 2.4 Philadelphia Sewer Systems: Combined vs. Separate ......................................28
Figure 6.1 Successful Watershed Restoration: Land – In-stream – Infrastructure ..........153
Figure 7.1 Unveiling of Philadelphia’s 1st Porous Green Street .....................................160
Figure 7.2 Unveiling of Philadelphia’s 1st Green Roof Bus Shelter ...............................161
Figure 7.3 Soak It Up, Philly! event at the Big Green Block ..........................................162
Figure 7.4 Stormwater Tree Trench: Maintenance Responsibilities ...............................179
Figure 8.1 Stormwater Charge Calculation .....................................................................242

Figure 8.2 Vision of “Before and After” Greening of a South Philadelphia Street ........248
Figure 8.3 Visualization of “Before and After” Greening a Schoolyard ........................ 249
Figure 8.4 Block Maps, Community Workshop Charette #1 ..........................................292
Figure 8.5 Block Use Maps, Community Workshop Charette #2 ...................................293
Figure 8.6 Cycle of GSI, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Revenue ......................354
Figure 8.7 Tree in side of house .......................................................................................360
Figure 8.8 Kill-A-Tree Van .............................................................................................360
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Abstract
“We Cannot Do It Alone:”
An Interpretive Policy Analysis of Urban Stormwater Governance
Katharine Antonia Travaline

With its innovative Green City, Clean Waters program, the Philadelphia Water
Department (PWD) is the first city in the United States to commit to managing
stormwater predominantly using green infrastructure on a city-wide scale. To PWD, this
Green City, Clean Waters policy primarily means reducing the amount of stormwater that
flows into the City’s combined sewer system by decreasing the imperviousness of the
urban environment. It also means that it cannot accomplish this goal alone. Because the
green stormwater infrastructure approach entails managing stormwater where it lands,
PWD must consider the other city agencies who manage and the members of the public
who live, work, and play in these city spaces that PWD wants to green. The approach
PWD has proposed thus relies on the involvement of multiple city agencies as well as the
public. With this study, I examine what it means to PWD and its city and public partners
to implement a green infrastructure approach to stormwater management in this
collaborative way. To do so, I conducted an interpretive policy analysis, informed by
political ethnography, including document analysis, interviewing, and participant-
observation. Specifically, examining the inter-agency collaborations and the government-
public collaborations involved in the implementation of this policy, I draw lessons about
complexity and uncertainty, difference, trust, identity, legitimacy, and accountability.
More broadly, I explore what PWD’s networked approach to stormwater governance
means for democratic policymaking in the City. I suggest that although this approach is
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more inclusive there remain contradictions between traditional, rationalist public
administrative practices and what it means to practice policy in this new governance
network. While PWD works to resolve these contradictions, I suggest that lessons drawn
from this interpretive policy analysis through the lens of deliberative democracy may
enhance the democratic policymaking processes of the City’s stormwater governance.