Search

Community decision making based on the sustainability of ecosystem services is an integrated process that involves multiple complex decisions and is greatly aided by an understanding of how those decisions are interrelated. The interrelatedness of decisions can be understood and even measured based on connections between actions and services and influence of services on domains of human well-being. These connections can be formed into a network structure so that quantifiable properties of networks can be applied to understanding decision impacts. We developed an eco-decisional network based on weighted social-ecological networks as a tool for integrated decision making based on ecosystem services and human well-being. Nodes are actions, services, or domains of human well-being and they are linked by weighted influence derived from community stakeholder input. Examination of the eco-decisional network, as well as comparison to pattern in the random networks, suggest there are important patterns of influence among different influence pathways from actions to community well-being, which describe community priorities and define unique roles through which chosen sets of actions can influence human well-being. The eco-decisional network is generalized across communities but can also be made community specific, which provides a tool for comparison between communities in decisional priorities (network properties), as well as comparisons between proposed actions within a community (network paths). The well-studied properties of networks, well- established network theory, as well as established network metrics make this approach promising for application to integrated decision making and for communicating possible outcomes to stakeholders. The result is a guidance tool for connecting propose actions to ecosystem services and human well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cities have revived as economic centers for the middle and upper classes, poor and minority communities continue to be locked out of urban job markets. First Source Hiring is designed to act as both a linkage program and a targeted hiring rule to ensure low-income residents have opportunities to work on publicly sponsored projects. A first wave of FSH began in the 1980s but was abandoned due to political push-back. A second wave emerged in response to growing inequality in the 1990s and 2000s. In this article, we review the literature on FSH development and implementation through a Four Rs evaluation framework. Then, we use case studies of FSH for Los Angeles World Airports, the Atlanta BeltLine, and the City of San Francisco to assess the potential of "second-wave" FSH programs to make meaningful contributions to linking disadvantaged job seekers with opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]