$7.8 Billion for Everglades Restoration: Why Do Environmentalists Look So Worried?

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, enacted in 2000, is a $7.8 billion federal/state investment in restoring the Florida Everglades ecosystem. The plan is a negotiated compromise between divergent interests in south Florida and promises to provide water and flood control for urban and agricultural users while maintaining a priority commitment to the natural system when allocating water produced by the 30-year project. The environmental community calls for independent scientific review of un-tested technologies, early and substantial hydrologic benefits to the remaining Everglades, including Everglades National Park, and strong programmatic regulations of the federal project to ensure that ecological restoration remains its primary purpose in spite of inherently conflicting interests at the state and local level.     

Florida Households’ Expected Responses to Hurricane Hazard Mitigation Incentives

This study tested a series of models predicting household expectations of participating in hurricane hazard mitigation incentive programs. Data from 599 households in Florida revealed that mitigation incentive adoption expectations were most strongly and consistently related to hazard intrusiveness and risk perception and, to a lesser extent, worry. Demographic and hazard exposure had indirect effects on mitigation incentive adoption expectations that were mediated by the psychological variables. The results also revealed differences in the factors affecting mitigation incentive adoption expectations for each of five specific incentive programs. Overall, the results suggest that hazard managers are more likely to increase participation in mitigation incentive programs if they provide messages that repeatedly (thus increasing hazard intrusiveness) remind people of the likelihood of severe negative consequences of hurricane impact (thus increasing risk perception).     

Scaling the prestige,authority, and income potential of college curricula

This paper develops the concept of “targeted education,” a theoretical ranking of college curricula, into a multidimensional framework. The new scales, based on the traditional stratification dimensions, prestige, authority, and income, are then used in a study of sex differences in the process of occupational achievement among men and women with college degrees. The targeted education scales predict occupational prestige and wages 7 years after the college degree, and they point out interesting differences between male and female attainment processes. In general, targeted education has a greater quantitative impact for men's occupational outcomes than for women's prestige and income, but results also suggest significant qualitative differences between men and women. A large proportion of women target their education toward, and end up in, an under-employed labor pool for the primary and secondary school system.     

Creating a positive emotional culture: Effect of internal communication and impact on employee supportive behaviors

The study surveyed 506 employees in the United States to test the effect of internal communication (i.e., corporate-level symmetrical and leadership-level responsive communications) on fostering a positive emotional culture characterized by companionate love, joy, pride, and gratitude. In addition, we tested the interplay between corporate internal communication and a positive emotional culture and its influence on supportive employee behaviors, specifically, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee advocacy. Results indicated that symmetrical communication and responsive leadership communication cultivated a positive emotional culture in organizations. Such culture also fostered employee OCB and advocacy. Moreover, corporate symmetrical communication directly and positively influenced employee OCB. Finally, this study found that employee OCB positively affected employee advocacy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for public relations scholars and practitioners were discussed.     

The impact of citizen evaluation review on community mental health center programs

A field study of techniques for involving local citizens in the evaluation of Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) services shows that lay citizens can make recommendations that service agencies will use to improve services. Seventeen citizen groups received evaluation information from participating CMHCs and developed 310 recommendations. Seventy-one percent of these suggestions were used by the CMHCs. Staff and governing board attitudes, fiscal pressures, and other organizational characteristics affected the success of the citizen groups.     

Using geographically weighted regression for environmental justice analysis: Cumulative cancer risks from air toxics in Florida

Previous quantitative research on environmental justice has been limited by simplistic assumptions used to measure health risks and traditional regression techniques that fail to discern spatial variations in statistical relationships. We address these gaps through a case study that examines: (a) whether potential health risks from exposure to hazardous air pollutants in Florida are related to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and (b) how the significance of statistical associations between health risk and race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status vary across the state. This study integrates census tract level estimates of cumulative cancer risk compiled by the EPA with Census 2000 data and a spatial statistical technique known as geographically weighted regression that allows us to explore spatial variability in analytical results. Our findings indicate that while race and ethnicity are significantly related to cancer risks in Florida, conventional regression can hide important local variations in statistical relationships relevant to environmental justice analysis.     

Assessing the Carrying Capacity of the Florida Keys

In 1996, the State of Florida mandated a study of the Florida Keys, the most populated portion of Monroe County, explicitly calling for a carrying capacity analysis to function as a basis for determining building permit allocation in the future. The Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study, conducted by the State of Florida and the US Army Corps of Engineers, has encountered challenges in trying to convert the vague carrying capacity concept into a functional, quantitative method. Difficulties in responding to external peer review advice suggests that institutional constraints are hindering re-direction of the study.     

Race differences in middle class lifestyle: The role of home ownership

This paper examines race differences in two aspects of “middle class” lifestyle: home ownership and net worth. Home ownership indicates stability; and for older persons net worth is an important part of economic status. Data from the NLS studies of older men are analyzed. The major findings are: (1) while whites at any earnings level are very likely to own homes by ages 50–64, only at relatively high earning levels do blacks begin to approach the home ownership rates of whites; (b) the net worth of blacks is substantially lower than that of whites after adjusting for variables in a standard status attainment model; and (c) however, among home owners the race difference as well as effects of other variables are much smaller than for renters. This is attributed to forced saving through home ownership. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible sources of low home ownership rates and low net worth of blacks and the implication of these findings for the study of middle class status.     

Implementing the Principles of Ecosystem Management Through Local Land Use Planning

While ecosystem approaches to management focus on broad spatial scales, decision makers increasingly recognize that implementation must occur at the local level with local land use decisions. This article examines the ability of local comprehensive plans in Florida to incorporate the principles of ecosystem management. It seeks to understand how comprehensive plans can effectively contribute to the management of ecological systems by systematically evaluating local plans against a conceptual model of what makes for a high quality ecosystem plan. Results measure the relative strengths and weaknesses of local plans to achieve the objectives of ecosystem management and provide direction on how communities can improve their environmental frameworks.     

Everglades Restoration: Interactions of Population and Environment

The Everglades system has suffered drastic changes to its life-blood, water. Dramatic population increases and intensive drainage efforts have significantly altered water quantity, quality, timing, and distribution through the system. This paper reviews water management alterations to the Everglades system and changes in the region's population and demography documenting the interconnectivity of the human and natural system. Specific ramifications of population and economic growth on land use, water use, and flood control are examined as a backdrop for discussion of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration efforts now underway. Through discussion of these ramifications and restoration efforts, challenges and opportunities for successful Everglades restoration are identified.