Overflowing with opportunity: Investigating case studies of stormwater management in Meadville, PA and Fallsburg, NY
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Author(s)
Dyer, Elizabeth
Date Issued
April 4, 2025
Abstract
As the climate crisis intensifies, communities located in humid regions are more likely to face increased precipitation and extreme flooding or stormwater events. Factors such as poverty levels and racial minority populations can also amplify the disparate challenges a community experiences in the face of such events. It is therefore critical to assess how local communities prepare infrastructure that mitigates the effects of such events and builds climate resilience, especially within the context of other existing inequities. This study examines two small towns – Meadville, PA and Fallsburg, NY – located in humid regions with notable populations of low-income and Hispanic/ Latino residents (respectively). This research aims to understand how these small communities utilize policy and planning to mitigate stormwater issues and, by extent, climate change. The emphasis on small communities is intentional, as there is less literature on small and mid-sized cities in comparison to large metropolitan areas. In order to complete the research goals, three policies or plans related to stormwater and/ or climate were selected per town, and placed against a systematic policy assessment framework designed to examine factors such as ecological, social, financial, and sustainability concerns. As a result, Meadville had slightly more intersectional awareness across these categories about how stormwater, climate change, and planning for both of these issues are linked, both in terms of where problems and potential sustainable solutions emerge. However, both towns demonstrated awareness of the critical need to address stormwater issues, especially as a means of protecting water quality and ecosystem health. Chapter 4, La representación del cambio climático en la prensa de Meadville, PA y Fallsburg, NY (2022 a 2024) examines the local newspapers of each case study community
in order to examine how issues related to climate change are represented and reacted to by readers. This chapter synthesizes newspaper articles written in the Spanish and English languages from the Sullivan County Democrat / Hoy en Sullivan and the Meadville Tribune. Overall, this study contributes an interdisciplinary policy assessment framework coupled with local media communications analysis that can be utilized to study other small towns and build awareness of stormwater and climate change planning across different communities.
Major
Environmental Science and Sustainability
Spanish
Honors
Environmental Science and Sustainability, 2025
World Languages and Cultures, 2025
First Reader(s)
Bethurem, Matt
Hernández, Wilfredo J.
Department
Environmental Science and Sustainability
World Languages and Cultures
Type of Publication
Senior Project Paper
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Name
Dyer_FinalComp_DSpace.pdf
Size
1.28 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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