Resources for Stormwater Education and Outreach

EPA and NOAA Resources

• EPA Stormwater Page
   
• EPA Trainings and Webcasts
   
• EPA Stormwater Resource Index
   
• EPA Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox-a variety of resources to help educate the public on nonpoint source pollution and stormwater runoff.
   
• EPA: Getting In Step Training Module - This module offers advice on how local governments, watershed organizations and others can maximize the effectiveness of public outreach campaigns to reduce nonpoint source pollution and protect the waterways that we treasure. The module is based on EPA's free, downloadable outreach guide Getting in Step: A Guide for Conducting Watershed Outreach Campaigns, which includes worksheets in the appendices to help you identify audiences, barriers to behavior change, and evaluation methods.
   
• NOAA's 12-Steps in a Needs Assessment - Conducting a needs assessment is a twelve-step process encompassing planning, data gathering, and analysis. This webpage will walk you through the steps.

National and Regional Social Marketing Tools, Reports, and Research

• Getting Your Feet Wet with Social Marketing
  by Jack Wilbur, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food
   
• Community Based Social Marketing - based on the book by Doug McKenzie-Mohr
   
• Tools of Change - offers specific tools, case studies, and a planning guide for helping people take actions and adopt habits that promote health and/or are more environmentally-friendly.
   
• Social Norms: An Underestimated and Underemployed Lever for Managing Climate Change by Vladas Griskevicius, University of Minnesota, Robert B. Cialdini, Arizona State University, and Noah J. Goldstein, University of Chicago -This paper reviews numerous field experiments to “harness the power of social norms to influence pro-environmental behavior.”
   
• Social Marketing Strategies for Stormwater Business Outreach: Summary of Recent Research in the Puget Sound Region: Assistance for Developing and Implementing Local Programs - This report summarizes findings from six different formative research projects recently completed in the Puget Sound region focusing on business practices that can pollute stormwater runoff. The report includes a summary of recommended and not recommended outreach strategies that have been tested through surveys, interviews, and focus groups as well as some that have been piloted and evaluated.*

* More examples of local social marketing research and related educational materials are included on the Public Education and Outreach Materials from Permittees webpage.

Evaluation Tools

• Evaluating Environmental Education and Outreach Programs: Workshop Materials Developed for the Washington State Department of Ecology Coordinated Prevention Grant Recipients - A helpful tool for designing education and outreach programs with evaluation in mind written by Pamela M.M. Jull, Ph.D. of Applied Research Northwest.
   
• EPA Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox Surveys and Evaluations - evaluation materials from watershed education campaigns across the US.

Public Education and Outreach Materials from Permittees