A Community-Led Approach to Environmental Monitoring and Adaptive Capacity Building in the Coastal Bend Region of Texas, USA

The Coastal Bend Region (CBR) of Texas is vulnerable to acute and chronic environmental stressors stemming from natural and industrial sources, including flooding and erosion from high tides, storm surge events, and ship traffic, as well as higher levels of air and water pollution due to expansion of nearby industrial operations. Communities in the CBR are diverse, spanning a range of sizes, demographics, and geographies, and have varying levels of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity to respond and adapt to the cumulative threats posed by climate change and industrial expansion. Currently, residents of the CBR are engaging in a variety of community organizing and advocacy efforts, including through existing and newly established community-based organizations. These organizations span a range of experience levels and capacities in interfacing with local decision-makers and engaging in collective action to address environmental threats, but all have expressed a need for more comprehensive data about environmental and industrial conditions to advocate for and make informed decisions about risk reduction strategies that mitigate negative impacts on air, water, and land resources.

Here, we discuss an ongoing research program to examine how smart and connected technologies can be integrated into regional communication and advocacy networks to increase awareness of natural and anthropogenic hazards and build community adaptive capacity equitably among the diverse residents in the CBR. We first present the results of a year-long planning study conducted in partnership with one CBR community to (1) evaluate the structure and function of the local communication, information-sharing, and policy-making networks and (2) co-develop a real-time, wireless sensor network and community dashboard to monitor environmental conditions. This study led to the formation of interdisciplinary, academic-civic partnerships that centered community needs in the design and implementation of the research objectives. We then discuss challenges and opportunities in expanding this work to the regional scale to engage a broader diversity of CBR residents using a bottom-up, participatory design approach, with the goal of supporting frontline communities as they advocate for more sustainable and equitable policies for hazard management.