It's hard to find another county in America that has accomplished more buyouts than Harris County. Since 1985, the Harris County Flood Control District - the main entity managing buyouts in the Houston area - has spent $342 million to purchase about 3,100 properties. But thanks to a decades-long trend of increased flooding in Houston, caused by a combination of urban sprawl, lax building regulations and intense rainstorms linked to climate change, buyouts haven't kept up with the destruction.

As cities are increasingly challenged by rapid urbanization, population growth and the impacts of land degradation and climate change, they are in the need of finding adequate solutions for sustainable city development. As most of this development is taking place in river-side and coastal areas the rapid loss of valuable wetland ecosystems makes our cities increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events and climate change.

The Princess Vlei restoration project Growing Conservation Communities seeks to ignite community led conservation to restore critical habitats in the Greater Princess Vlei Conservation Area. It is projected to encompass the largest community led mass-planting event in the Greater Cape Floristic Region. While planting has been happening for ten years, the scope and rigour of this restoration plan takes the process to a new level." Information about the Princess Vlei Restoration Project can also be found on the Society for Ecological Restoration website

Wetland banking is an increasingly prominent environmental governance strategy in the United States. Associated with larger trends toward the financialization of ecosystem services, wetland banking acts as a mode of social regulation while stabilizing a particular regime of accumulation. Its use by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the development of wetlands has certain implications for the distribution of and access to land, water, and capital.

Ten years ago, as news of the BP oil disaster reached Louisiana's Grand Bayou Indian Village, Rosina Philippe dispatched her brother Maurice Phillips on a reconnaissance mission. Phillips pointed his flatboat toward the Gulf of Mexico and motored through a series of canals and inlets until he reached a fertile fishing ground called Bay Jimmy, eight miles from home. He returned with a passenger: a brown pelican, alive but slathered in petroleum. Philippe and her brother belong to the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha Tribe.

This report represents a general overview of the primary causes and consequences of coastal land loss. Most of the examples and references are from states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean where the largest magnitudes and highest rates of coastal land losses in the United States are recorded (Dahl, 2000). The report serves as an introductory guide to the topics and literature on coastal land loss, and acts as a link to ongoing research being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Over the last 100 years, agricultural expansion and intensification has led to changes in water quality and the health of stream ecosystems. Considerable increases in fertilizer and pesticide use began in the 1960s. In 2010, about 11 billion kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer and 300 million kilograms of pesticides were used annually to enhance crop production or control pests.

With this resource, community members in New Orleans are invited to take part in stewardship by adopting a loca catch basin. "The City of New Orleans is working closely with residents and business owners to Adopt A Catch Basin on their block and help improve drainage conditions throughout the City. Eighty five percent of the City's clogged catch basins are full of leaves and grass clippings that can be easily and safely removed by residents like you!"

In recent decades, the topic of marine debris has gained recognition as a significant global ecological and economic problem. As the amount of debris in our oceans grows, the frequency of research and monitoring to understand its sources, concentrations, and impacts also increases. As the frequency of studies grow, the evidence and understanding of the negative effects of marine debris does as well (Rochman et al., 2016).

The United States has remarkable water systems, developed over two centuries of technological, institutional, and economic advances. Yet the benefits of those systems have not been felt equally across regions, communities, or populations. And the adverse consequences of inadequate water quality or quantity, and the lack of responsiveness of some water institutions to community input and participation, have helped contribute to the growing environmental justice (EJ) effort to reform water policies based on respect and justice for all, free from discrimination, bias, or inequity.