Blue-Green Action Platform (BlueGAP): Stories, data & nitrogen management

Nitrogen pollution, whether from wastewater effluent, vehicle air emissions, stormwater or agricultural runoff, harms human and ecological health, compromises livelihoods, and costs billions in damages. Moving the needle on actions needed to properly manage nitrogen requires out of the box approaches. Our approach, currently funded through NSF’s Blue Economy Accelerator program, is to humanize nitrogen pollution. The Blue-Green Action Platform (BlueGAP) aims to combine storytelling with trusted water quality data in a way that motivates individual and community actions that improve nitrogen management. From farms in Iowa to urban frontline communities in Tampa to marine parks in St. Croix, USVI, people have stories to tell on how nitrogen pollution affects them and their communities and what they are doing to address it. Working closely with “nitrogen champions” within and across three differently sized and monitored watersheds, we apply systems thinking to tease out leverage points and actions for them. I will share research insights as well as tidbits from the accelerator on team science, convergence research, storytelling, human-centered design, and business sustainability.