Kristan Cockerill Ph.D.

Dr. Cockerill has coordinated policy projects at local, regional and federal levels and conducted research on diverse environmental topics. Most recently her work has focused on assessing regional attitudes about water, stream rehabilitation, and community water education.

There are 34 included publications by Kristan Cockerill Ph.D.:

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Assessing Public Perceptions of Computer-Based Models 2004 1772 Although there is a solid body of research on both collaborative decision-making and on processes using models, there is little research on general public attitudes about models and their use in making policy decisions. This project assessed opinions...
Book Review of Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict 2007 386 Book review
Book review of American Environmental Policy, 1990-2006: Beyond Gridlock 2008 456 Book Review
Book review of Collaborative Environmental Management: What Roles for Government? 2006 641 Book review
Book review of Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 2010 531 Book review
Book Review of Mediated Modeling: A System Dynamics Approach to Environmental Consensus Building 2005 441 Book review
Book review of Useless Arithmetic 2007 585 Book Review
Book review of Water for Life: Water Management and Environmental Policy 2005 477 Book review
Bridging Disciplines with the Riparian Area Management Project 2004 1351 Faculty at Columbia University’s Earth Semester created the interdisciplinary Riparian Area Management Project to help students integrate information and skills from life sciences, geosciences, social sciences, and humanities focused coursework. Stru...
Closing Coffee Production Loops With Waste To Ethanol In Matagalpa, Nicaragua 2012 1399 Wet milling of coffee cherries is an effective process resulting in a high quality, high value product; however, it requires large volumes of fresh water and produces wastewater and pulp byproducts that pose environmental threats if unmitigated. A pr...
Communicating How Water Works: Results From A Community Water Education Program 2010 1213 Based on feedback from attendees at an environmental summit who requested information about regional water sources, a team comprised of a local nonprofit, a state university, and a cooperative extension office created a community water education prog...
Context is Key: The Media Role in Shaping Public Perceptions about Environmental Issues 2002 5620 Many environmental professionals are reluctant to interact with the media, often because of a negative experience and the perception that poor coverage can affect environmental programs and policies. Usinga case study of media coverage related to ...
Cooperative Modeling Lessons for Environmental Management 2007 590 Environmental practitioners may find cooperative modeling an effective tool to address complex environmental management needs. The method involves convening a multidisciplinary team to collaboratively construct a system dynamics model. Advances i...
Cooperative Modeling To Promote Systems Thinking In Applying The National Environmental Policy Act 2010 262 When the National Environmental Policy Act was passed in 1969, it presupposed that there were clear ways to identify and then address environmental impacts from federal actions. Since then, it has become evident that environmental issues are grounded...
Cooperative Modeling: Building Bridges Between Science And The Public 2006 1277 As freshwater resources become more scarce and water management becomes more contentious, new planning approaches are essential to maintain ecologic, economic, and social stability. One technique involves cooperative modeling in which scientists and ...
Creating False Images: Stream Restoration in an Urban Setting 2013 2340 Stream restoration has become a multibillion dollar business with mixed results as to its efficacy. This case study utilizes pre- and post-monitoring data from restoration projects on an urban stream to assess how well stream conditions, publicly sta...
“Creating False Images: Stream Restoration In An Urban Setting” REPLY TO DISCUSSION by David L. Rosgen 2015 789 No abstract available.
DocuAppalachia: A Half Century Focus On The Environment (Film, RECAPP 2021) 2021 171 In 2017 an untitled, silent 16mm film reel from the 1970s was discovered in storage in Boone, NC. The heavily spliced film, made by local photographer George Flowers, juxtaposes images of idyllic Appalachian landscapes with piles of trash, rusting ve...
Endogenous Consequentiality In Stated Preference Referendum Data: The Influence Of The Randomly Assigned Tax Amount 2017 942 Recent empirical and theoretical research stresses it is important for survey respondents to believe that survey votes are consequential, meaning their votes can potentially influence whether a proposed policy is undertaken. We test the effect of a r...
Engaging The Public And Decision Makers In Cooperative Modeling For Regional Water Management 2010 327 In cooperative modeling projects, a group of people work together to develop a model to better understand a complex system and explore consequences of various “what if” scenarios. This report describes a case study from New Mexico in which representa...
A Failure Reveals Success: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development, and Industrial Ecology Education 2013 566 Although environmental education and education for sustainable development have become well-established areas of scholarship and practice, there has not been a similar development focused on “industrial ecology education.” A review of the historical ...
A Fresh Look at a Policy Sciences Methodology: Collaborative Modeling for More Effective Policy 2009 1773 Collaborative modeling offers a novel methodology that integrates core ideals in the policy sciences. The principles behind collaborative modeling enable policy researchers and decision makers to address interdisciplinarity, complex systems, and publ...
Hot, Salty Water: A Confluence Of Issues In Managing Stormwater Runoff For Urban Streams 2017 1480 Research increasingly highlights cause and effect relationships between urbanization and stream conditions are complex and highly variable across physical and biological regions. Research also demonstrates stormwater runoff is a key causal agent in a...
Individualized Water Source As An Indicator Of Attitudes About Water Management And Conservation In Humid Regions 2015 1750 Public perceptions about water quantity and water as a common pool resource are understudied in humid regions. As water demand increases, the need to more closely manage water, even in humid areas, will increase, requiring better understanding how pe...
Industrial Ecology Education at Wuhan University 2007 725 China requires industrial ecology (IE) skills and knowledge to deal with the contradiction between rapid economic growth and subsequent environmental pollution and resource depletion. Industrial ecology education was introduced in China in 1997 a...
Last Settler’s Syndrome And Resource Use In Southern Appalachia 2014 430 To better understand perspectives on resource use and economic development in a rural area, results from three independent studies have been integrated. The first project assessed whether there were differences across demographic groups as to their w...
Leveraging Opportunities for Campus Sustainability 2009 810 Institutions of higher education are well situated globally for transformation toward sustainability. The case of the Water Resources Planning Committee (WRPC) at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, United States offers insight into how...
Managing Water in Western North Carolina: Decision-Maker Perceptions and Policy Implementation 2014 662 Western North Carolina is water rich, with high annual rainfall and historically low population. Therefore, water management has traditionally not been a signi?cant policy issue. Recent droughts and high population growth, however, have stressed many...
Public Perception Of A High-Quality River: Mixed Messages 2016 466 Existing studies have demonstrated a lack of consensus on the relationships between what the public sees when viewing a river, the actual ecological quality of that river, and a perceived need for management measures for that river. More specifically...
Testing Language: Media Language Influence on Public Attitudes about River Management 2003 747 Everyday we make decisions on diverse topics using information from a wide variety of sources. This project builds on existing research about how people internalize information they skim from newspapers and the influence this has on their attitudes a...
To Restore Or Not To Restore: Assessing Pre-Project Conditions Of A Habitat Restoration Project On The New River, North Carolina 2015 562 Despite continued emphasis on restoring streams to improve ecological function, there remains a dearth of data documenting pre-restoration conditions to clearly establish a need for restoration. Without establishing a clear, data- driven need for res...
Water Does Not Flow Up Hill: Determinants Of Willingness To Pay For Water Conservation Measures In The Mountains Of Western North Carolina 2015 1416 Even in historically water-rich areas, population growth and drought put pressure on water supplies. Understanding public attitudes about water management and, especially water conservation, may become increasingly salient as even humid regions attem...
Water Quantity Perceptions In Northwestern North Carolina: Comparing College Student And Public Survey Responses 2015 1256 Understanding behaviors and perceptions regarding water quantity through carefully designed research is a critical component in producing more effective water management policies. Attitudes and perceptions among young people are understudied in the e...
The Water Supply Is Fine: Decision-Maker Perceptions Of Water Quantity And Supply-Side Management 2014 1517 Years of research have called for more science to be integrated into water management decisions and for a shift from supply-side to demand-side management; yet, there remains a strong emphasis on supply-side approaches and in many areas limited atten...