Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 48(2): March 2022 New media technology is rapidly introducing novel methods for online learning, planning, and managing of urban resources and coordinating collective action (de Lange and de Waal 2013). A growing body of research is exploring the conceptualization, develop- ment, and implementation of technologies that are empowering people to engage with and actively shape their urban environment (Paulos et al. 2009; Foth et al. 2011; de Lange and de Waal 2013). Apps, software, and other technology have opened the door for citizens to collect, process, and coproduce data as part of scientific inquiry (Silvertown 2009). Partici- pation in these efforts has been shown to increase sci- entific interest and knowledge in community members (Evans et al. 2005; Bonney et al. 2016). Studies have compared digital and analog knowl- edge exchange strategies, most frequently in the con- text of education and formal classroom or institutional learning. Meta-analyses comparing electronic dis- tance education to learning from traditional in-person instruction have indicated that there is practically no difference in learning between the two (Bernard et al. 2004; Clark and Mayer 2016). However, the planning of the courses and quality of the teaching and learning activities are a significant factor (Muñoz-Erickson 2014). These studies concluded that the instructional method or pedagogical approach is far more influen- tial on learning than the delivery method. However, there has been no study focused explicitly on digital knowledge exchange as it relates to urban environ- mental stewardship. To address these gaps in the literature around knowledge types and knowledge exchange as it per- tains to e-tools for stewardship, we examine a set of e-tools and their use by civic stewards to answer the question: “What type of knowledge sharing is being facilitated by e-tools, and how does this knowledge relate to stewardship of UGI?” We frame this ques- tion by applying Partelow and Winkler’s (2016) con- ceptual model of knowledge systems for system transformation as a framework for discussing the knowledge needs for taking stewardship action in a complex, urban system. MATERIALS AND METHODS Limited research exists on digital knowledge sharing and how it relates to stewardship. Therefore, we chose an exploratory, qualitative approach to collect and analyze data on e-tools for UGI. We applied a case study approach (Yin 2009), selecting cases to be 127 different and emblematic, providing conceptual insights into the development and use of digital tools for urban environmental stewardship (Silva 2017). For each case, we examined an e-tool and its asso- ciated context. We chose to bound the selection of tools to those geographically connected to New York City (NYC). NYC is a complex urban system with signif- icant environmental challenges and development pressures. It also has a large, well-established net- work of stewards that have been the subject of several studies (Connolly et al. 2013, 2014; Krasny et al. 2015; Svendsen et al. 2016; Silva 2017). These studies have classified NYC’s stewardship network as vast and diverse, serving a variety of site types including com- munity gardens, street trees, parks, and waterways. The size and formality of these groups can range from a few people and highly informal to large, well-established nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with signifi- cant annual budgets. Additionally, NYC had a variety of existing e-tools focused on natural resource man- agement that allowed us to select cases from across various site types. Focusing on tools developed in one city allowed us to control for factors such as local policy, site conditions, and social-ecological history. We opted to study cases that represented a variety of practices (tree care, gardening, and landscape plan- ning) rather than focusing on a single type of practice on its own to derive findings that were generalizable to the broad landscape of stewardship behaviors. This variety in site types also represents a variety of eco- system services such as regulating climate and UHI, local food production, and recreation opportunities. After a scoping review of e-tool platforms in NYC, we selected 6 intentionally different tools for data collection based on the criteria that they were tools built to be accessed digitally (on a smartphone or computer) and focused on urban green infrastructure (Table 1). The study involved participant interviews (n = 11) and subsequent qualitative data analysis guided heavily by analytic induction (Bryman 2012). This research was subject to a full ethics review conducted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. For each case, we inter- viewed tool developers. More specifically, interviews were carried out with representatives from each orga- nization who played a key role in either the ideation, development, and/or current maintenance of the online tool. Interviews were conducted with two rep- resentatives of each case study except for one organi- zation that declined to provide a second interviewee. ©2022 International Society of Arboriculture
March 2022
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