Stormwater Public Education and Outreach
From Water Wiki
Phase II education requirements and possibilities
Phase II rules require regulated entities to conduct public education and outreach] regarding stormwater and its impacts because public behaviors have such a large impact on the quality of stormwater runoff.
"Public education" and "public outreach" are often used interchangeably, but the terms are not synonymous. "Education" implies that the target group has reached a higher level of understanding about the issue (an "educational outcome"). "Outreach" is one way one can try to "educate" a group, but all too often, outreach is limited to simply disseminating information (e.g., brochures). Expecting such an approach to result in behavior change involves a string of questionable assumptions: the public will 1) read or listen to the outreach, 2) understand it, 3) CARE about the issue, 4) WANT to change their behavior, 5) know HOW to change their behavior, 6) have the ABILITY to change their behavior, 7) TRY changing their behavior, and 8) MAINTAIN the new behavior consistently over time.
Because it is more oriented to an outcome and is more complex, "education" differs from "outreach." "Outreach" is better used to describe the mechanisms by which messages are communicated to the public. Furthermore, education alone is also insufficient to change behavior. Education only gets us to the second assumption listed above: they understand.
Outreach can take numerous forms, but it can be broadly categorized as either face-to-face outreach (presentations to a Ruritan, taking Girl Scouts on field trips) or mass media outreach (radio and television PSAs, websites, brochures mailed to neighborhoods).
Both outreach and education should be evaluated in terms of outcomes (behavior change), but since this is complicated, we often resort to measuring OUTPUTS of outreach campaigns instead (number of brochures distributed, web site hits). See the wiki page on Evaluating Stormwater Public Outreach.
One effective tool for watershed and stormwater education is the Enviroscape Watershed Model. Enviroscape makes a tabletop model of a watershed that shows how streams are connected to lakes and how everyday activities become water pollution. [Help refine a script for presenting the Enviroscape Watershed Model by clicking here!]
To help practitioners test assumptions and plan realistic, effective campaigns that will result in actual behavior changes that are maintained over time, and to evaluate such campaigns, the field called [community-based] social marketing is beginning to be applied to the field of stormwater.
The foremost organization for mass media outreach on stormwater and related issues in North Carolina is the Clean Water Education Partnership (CWEP), adroitly staffed by the beautiful and talented planners Sarah Bruce and Heather Saunders of Triangle J Council of Governments.
Integrated stormwater and water conservation education: possible or pipe dream?
The new North Carolina water efficiency requirements, passed in the drought bill in 2008, S.L. 2008-143, require as a prerequisite for public funding of water systems that they have "a consumer education program that emphasizes the importance of water conservation." Perhaps the beautiful and talented planners Bruce and Saunders can figure out whether citizen education about water might simultaneously help with stormwater and water conservation needs.
SB: It would be difficult to create funding mechanisms that address multiple drivers unless the drivers apply to the same entities. CWEP as a partnership is driven by entities subject to Neuse, Tar-Pamlico, and Phase II rules and we focus on stormwater for that reason.
