Trust and collaboration connect remediation and restoration to community revitalization

Abstract

Improvements to environmental quality through sediment remediation and habitat restoration are considered important components of the revitalization of communities with current or historical concentrations of industry. Moreover, these improvements can increase property values and consequently contribute to resident displacement and gentrification. However, little is known about the actual mechanisms that connect remediation and restoration to revitalization outcomes. Thus, there is a need to better understand the connections between remediation, restoration, and revitalization to inform more equitable revitalization processes. We address this gap through a case study of three communities in the Great Lakes region of the United States, where high levels of sediment contamination and habitat loss from industrial pollutants led to their designation as three of 43 Areas of Concern (AOCs) by the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Drawing from 16 semi-structured interviews with community leaders and participant observation in three public meetings, our study reveals that community leaders define revitalization largely through economic diversification and housing development. Connections between remediation, restoration and revitalization are driven in part by visual indicators of environmental improvement and public access to the waterbody that support investment, in addition to cross-sectoral and multi-scalar collaboration. Importantly, these collaborations and local champions’ leadership are highly dependent on affinitive trust revealing that there is great potential to increase resilience in AOCs by increasing trust diversity. Together, these findings add to our understanding of the ways remediation and restoration contribute to revitalization and inform city planning practices that promote more equitable revitalization outcomes.