How Hoosiers relate to the environment has direct implications for what strategies will likely be effective in addressing environmental issues like pollution and climate change.
Environmental Resilience Institute researchers are documenting how humans have changed the Indiana landscape over time and talking to Hoosier farmers and residents to gauge environmental attitudes and understand decision making.
With a focus on understanding environmental histories and legacies in Indiana households, IUPUI History Professor Jason Kelly leads a team that is working to engage Hoosiers and document lived experiences and practices associated with water and environmental change.
Indiana’s landscape and hydroscape have been extensively modified by humans for centuries yet little is known about where, when, and why these modifications occurred. With a focus on Indiana’s hydroscape, a team led by IU Associate Professor Rebecca Lave and postdoctoral researcher John Baeten seeks to understand how these historical processes continue to affect the ways we know and manage our environment today.
One of the key barriers to addressing agricultural water pollution is the limited water quality data available to farmers to help inform nutrient management decisions. IU Assistant Professor Landon Yoder and his team are working with farmers to collect water samples and provide them with data relevant to their farm management decisions.
The Hoosier Life Survey, led by Institute Fellow Matthew Houser, IU Professor Eric Sandweiss, and IU Center for Survey Research will provide new insights into Hoosiers' views of and expectations for climate change in their region of Indiana. As the only survey of its kind in Indiana, it will also reveal how Hoosiers are preparing for climate change, their support for community-level resilience and mitigation policies, and what factors are shaping these preferences.
IU Associate Professor Shahzeen Attari and her team aim to investigate the narratives Hoosiers use to imagine what a sustainable future could look like in 50 or 100 years. Participants will identify pathways to achieve sustainable futures that are self-generated rather than externally applied.
Nutrient pollution in the Midwest is a result of how humans manage fertilizer application and climate. In partnership with an Indiana-based farming cooperative, IU Associate Professor Adam Ward and his collaborators are working to assess soil quality and nutrient losses on Hoosier farms to gauge the effectiveness of nutrient management practices.
IU Professors David Konisky and Sanya Carley and their collaborators seek to understand the nature and extent of energy insecurity among Indiana households and to identify the coping strategies individuals use to confront the hardships associated with the energy transition.
