At the Confluence of Data Streams: Mapping Paired Social and Biophysical Landscapes on the Puget Sound's Edge

ABSTRACT

We seek to expand interdisciplinary insights into coastal management by pairing survey data from the general public with attendant landscape data in the Puget Sound region. Our social survey gathered information regarding attitudes and perceptions of changing social and environmental conditions in the Puget Sound Basin as well as views regarding possible management interventions. We mapped the survey data to US zip code regions and spatially overlaid the survey response data with existing geospatial data layers of biophysical conditions. Using mixed-effects logistic regression we examine the relationships between urban development trajectories and individual views about both environmental problems and possible policy responses. We found significant relationships between people's responses and the physical conditions within their residence zip code, as well as social variables, which illustrated the importance of developing new analytical approaches that consider the relationships between both biophysical and social features and individual attitudes about coastal environmental concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• environmental attitudes
• environmental policy
• landscape ecology
• Puget Sound
• social survey

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Sara Brabson for her assistance in navigating the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) social survey approval process. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, the survey presented here was approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the OMB under Control Number 0648-0641. Thanks also to all who took the time to participate in the study.