Research Approach

Research in the Sustainability Science Lab starts from a deceptively simple premise: environmental problems are not primarily problems of nature, they are problems of decision making, governance, and meaning. The science of what threatens a river, an insect pollinator, or a floodplain community is rarely the limiting factor. What limits progress is how different communities, agencies, landowners, and governments understand the problem, whose knowledge counts, and whose participation is treated as legitimate. Our research addresses these gaps.

Environmental governance fails, reliably, when a social problem gets treated as a technical one, or when a place gets managed like a substitutable space. For twenty years, our research has worked at that failure point, across water resources governance, pollinator conservation policy, citizen science, and nature-based solutions, developing frameworks for why well-designed interventions misfire and what structural conditions make durable change possible.

Two ideas organize this work. The first is from social systems theory: That different sectors of society (science, policy, economy, culture, etc.) only hear environmental problems when those problems interrupt something they already care about. The second is from place theories: That the communities most affected by environmental change are not passive recipients of policy, but holders of valuable place-based knowledge and authority that external governance frameworks routinely misrecognize. Understanding both is necessary for designing interventions that actually work. 

Methodology
In every domain where large-scale environmental planning intersects with communities that have deep, place-based relationships with natural systems—water resources governance, nature-based solutions, managed retreat, dam removal, renewable energy transition siting—the limiting factor is not technical knowledge. It is social intelligence: Knowing what communities actually believe, why they beleive it, and how those beliefs are organized in relation to specific places, events, behaviors, relationships, and desired futures. Our work involves systematically producing that social intelligence at the scale and depth that agency, commuity, and legal decision makers need. We examine driving logics, narratives, and rules that shape interactions between social and ecological functions. Therefore, we investigate empirical human discourses, social practices, laws, policy, and politics of places. 

Funders and Collaborators
This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, US Army Corps of Engineers, the US State Department, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Department of Agriculture, The National Park Service, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, The Nature Conservancy, and several foundations. It has involved sustained partnerships with state and federal agencies, tribal governments, and municipal partners across New England and the Missouri River basin — relationships that shape the questions as much as the funding. 

Current Projects:
  1. Integrating Stakeholder Knowledge in Water Resources Planning and Policy
  2. ​Developing Meaningful Models of Social-Ecological Systems for Decision Making​
  3. Insect Pollinator Conservation Policy 


Sustainability Science is an interdisciplinary field that examines social-ecological system dynamics to characterize system structure and develop interventions aimed at sustainability transitions. It is defined by a commitment to knowledge-action integration, recognition of community-based and place-based knowledge, and prioritization of inclusive well-being across all actors--human and more-than-human—within the system.

Active Project Areas

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Mill River, Taunton, MA
 1. Integrating stakeholder knowledge in water resources planning and policy

When a river floods, the people who live along it have knowledge that no model captures — which bends have always been dangerous, which roads and fields flood first, which neighbors have already adapted and how. This expertise is useful to the informational aspects of planning — it is often untapped. Our research is built on the conviction that this local expertise is not just culturally valuable — it is scientifically essential. We work with communities along the Yellowstone, Missouri, Mill, Penobscot, Kennebec, and other rivers to bring that knowledge into water planning, flood mitigation, drought planning, dam removal, and nature-based solutions.

Our approach to engaging local expertise informs both technical and procedural tasks. Analyses are used for shaping communication and managing conflict.

Projects include:
  • NSF, GeoSciences “RAISE: CHIRRP: Building resilient floodplain communities in a changing climate through iterative stakeholder engagement" 2025–2028
  • The Nature Conservancy, "Looking back on the Mill River dam removals: The human dimensions of nature-based solutions" 2024–2026
  • MDNR "Piloting floodplain resiliency conversations and an engagement process in repetitive-loss communities along the Missouri River"
  • USDA "Future pathways to flood mitigation: Engaging landowner partnerships in flood solutions in the Lower Mississippi River Basin"
  • USACE "Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory Update 2018 with Emphasis on Drought and Flood Preparedness"
  • NSF "ABI Innovation: A computational framework for integrating citizen science data into an aquatic ecosystem model for enhanced sustainable management"  Streamflow forecast & Water temp forecast
  • MDNR "Missouri Integrated Water Study-Stakeholder Engagement Design for the 2017 Missouri State Water Plan"
  • MDNRC "Montana State Water Plan 2015: Yellowstone River Basin Planning Issue Scoping"
  • USACE "The Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory"
  • MTHC "Journals of the Yellowstone River: A Radio Catalog"

The research is funded by: The National Science Foundation, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Humanities Montana Planning Grant, Greater Yellowstone River Conservation District Council, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and US Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service.

Conducted in collaboration with faculty from Montana State University-Billings, Montana State University-Bozeman, Eastern Washington University, Rocky Mountain College, Texas A&M University, Tarleton State University, University at Buffalo, and Indiana University; Friends of the Boyne River, Trout Unlimited, Boyne USA, Boyne City, Yellowstone Public Radio, the Western Heritage Center of Billings, the Rocky Mountain Rough Writers, CDM-Smith, The Nature Conservancy, and the people of the Kennebec (ME), Penobscot (ME), Mill (MA), Taunton (MA), Milk (MT, Alberta), St. Mary (MT, Alberta), Missouri (MO), Boyne (MI), and Yellowstone (WY, MT, ND) rivers. 

Related Publications:​
  1. Catalano, AJ, Hall, DM, Gentil, GM. 2025. Examining local truth regimes on flooding and river management in the Lower Missouri River Basin, USA. Environmental Management. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-025-02110-8
  2. Hall, DM, Avellaneda, PM, Ficklin, D, Knouft, J, Lowry, CS. 2024. Citizen silence: Missed opportunities in citizen science. BioScience. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biae020
  3. van Rees, CB, Chambers, ML, Bledsoe, BP, *Catalano, AJ, Hall, DM, Huang, Y, Lammers, RW, Landry, CE, Nelson, DR, Shudtz, M, Suedel, BC. 2024. An Interdisciplinary Overview of Levee Setback Benefits: Supporting Spatial Planning and Implementation of Riverine Nature-based Solutions WIREs: Water, DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1750.
  4. Gilbertz, SJ, Hall, DM. 2022. Bringing Sustainability to the Ground Level: Competing Demands in the Yellowstone River Valley. Foreword by Hoffman, Andrew J. New York: Business Expert Press. ISBN 9781637421482
  5. Hall, DM, Gilbertz, SJ, Anderson, MA, Avellaneda, P, Ficklin, D, Knouft, J., Lowry CS, 2021. Mechanisms for engaging social systems in freshwater science research. Freshwater Science, 40(1).
  6. *Emerson MR, Hall DM, Gilbertz SJ. 2021. Pipeline pipedreams: Oil spills, pipeline accidents, and the local truths embedding fossil fuels in the Yellowstone River valley, United States. Energy Research & Social Science
  7. ​Gilbertz, S, Hall, DM, Ward, L, Anderson, M. 2019. Science on the sideline: Pragmatism and the Yellowstone River Basin Advisory Council. Water Resources Management.33(4): 1411–1424.
  8. Lowery, CS, Fienen, MN, Hall, DM. Stepenuck, K, 2019. Growing Pains of Crowdsourced Stream Stage Monitoring using Mobile Phones: The Development of CrowdHydrology. Frontiers in Earth Science. 
  9. Anderson, M., Gilbertz S., Ward, L., McEvoy, J., Hall, D.M. 2018. Prior appropriation and water planning reform in Montana’s Yellowstone River Basin: Path dependency or boundary object? Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 20(2):198–213.
  10. Horton, C.C., Hall, D.M., Gilbertz, S.J., Peterson, T.R. 2017. Voice as an entry to agriculturalists’ conservationist identity: A cultural inventory of the Yellowstone River. Environmental Communication: Journal of Nature and Culture, 5, 609–623.
  11. Ward, L., Gilbertz S., Anderson, M., Hall, D.M., McEvoy, J. 2017. Public stealth and boundary objects: Coping with integrated water resource management and the post-political condition in Montana's portion of the Yellowstone River Watershed. Geoforum, 83:1–13.
  12. Hall, D.M., Gilbertz, S.J., Anderson, M., Ward, L. 2016. Beyond "buy-in": Designing citizen participation in water planning as research. Journal of Cleaner Production, 133:725–734. 
  13. Anderson, M., Hall, D.M., McEvoy, J., Gilbertz., S.J., Ward, L., Rode, A. 2016. Defending dissensus: Participatory governance and the politics of water measurement in Montana’s Yellowstone River Basin. Environmental Politics, 25(6):991–1012.
  14. Gilbertz, S.G., Hall, D.M., Ward, L. 2013. Yellowstone River Basin Advisory Council: Membership & Report of 2013 Public Scoping Activities. Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. 
  15. Hall, D.M., Gilbertz, S., Horton, C., Peterson, T.R. 2012. Culture as a means to contextualize policy. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2(3), 222−233. ​
  16. Gilbertz, S.J., Horton, C.C., Hall, D.M. 2007.  Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory. United States Corps of Engineers and the Greater Yellowstone River Conservation District Council. 787 pages.  Available at: http://www.yellowstonerivercouncil.org/dev/resources.php​​​
​2. Developing meaningful models of social-ecological systems for decision making

To develop sustainable policies, environmental planning groups must share a common set of assumptions about the complex systems in which they operate and manage. This project explores how social-ecological systems can be meaningfully represented to improve decision making. Through engaging stakeholders in conceptual modeling and results of computational models, we are improving the salience of scientific models to communities of shared resource users while simultaneously improving the abilities of scientists to communicate the usefulness of their products.  

Projects include:
  • NSF Hydrologic Sciences “Collaborative research: Exploring the influence of agricultural tile drainage on streamflow and water temperature in the Midwestern US using a stakeholder-driven approach"2023–2026
  • US State Department USA-Canada International Joint Commission on Transboundary Rivers, US Geological Survey, “Socio-cultural indicators of St. Mary and Milk Rivers” 2024–2026
  • NSF Decision Risk and Management Sciences “Engaging communities to discover environmentally and socially optimal waste management decisions” 2021–2026
  • NSF "ABI Innovation: A computational framework for integrating citizen science data into an aquatic ecosystem model for enhanced sustainable management"  Streamflow forecast & Water temp forecast
  • USACE “Integrating Climate Data with Hydrologic and Ecological Niche Models to Predict Impacts of Climate Change for Threatened and Endangered Species in the Mobile River Basin”
  • USACE “Communicating social-ecological systems models”
  • NPS “Modeling Coupled Human and Ecological Systems for the National Park Service Park Monitoring Program”
 
This project is funded by: The National Science Foundation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, US State Department, and the National Park Service (U.S.)

Conducted in collaboration with: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center's Environmental Lab and faculty at the University of Southampton, Indiana University, Saint Louis University, Texas A&M University, Texas State University, University of Alabama, others

Related Publications: 
  1. Hall, DM, Avellaneda, PM, Ficklin, D, Knouft, J, Lowry, CS. 2024. How to close the loop with citizen scientists to advance meaningful science. Sustainability Science
  2. Gutierrez-Lopez, J, McGarvey, RG, Noble, JS, Hall, DM, Costello, C. 2024. Quantification of social metrics for use in optimization: An application to solid waste management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 480(11):14411, DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.144111.
  3. Hall, DM, Gilbertz, SJ, Anderson, MA, Avellaneda, P, Ficklin, D, Knouft, J., Lowry CS, 2021. Mechanisms for engaging social systems in freshwater science research. Freshwater Science, 40(1).
  4. Avellaneda, PM, Ficklin, D, Lowery, CS, Knouft, J, Hall, DM. 2020. Improving hydrological models with the assimilation of citizen science data. Water Resources Research, 10.1029/2019WR026325.
  5. Hall, DM, Lazarus, ED., Thompson, JL., 2019. Mediated modeling and participatory modeling. In Fath, B. (Ed.) Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. Encyclopedia of Ecology 2nd Ed. Elsevier. 129–135. 
  6. Hall, D.M., Feldpausch-Parker, A., Peterson T.R., Stephens J., Wilson E.J. 2017. Social-ecological system resonance: a framework for brokering sustainable solutions. Sustainability Science, 12(3): 381-392.
  7. Hall, D.M., Swannack, T.M., Lazarus, E.D., Peterson, M.J., Gilbertz, S.J., Horton, C.C., Peterson, T.R., 2015. Integrating social power and political influence into models of social-ecological systems. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 4(2), 61–76. 
  8. Hall, D.M., Lazarus, E.D., Swannack, T.S. 2014. Strategies for communicating systems models. Environmental Modelling & Software, 5, 70–76. 
  9. Hall, D.M., Gilbertz, S., Horton, C., Peterson, T.R. 2013. Integrating divergent representations of place into decision contexts. In: Stewart, W.P., D. R. Williams, and L. E. Kruger (Eds.). Place-based Conservation: Perspectives from the social sciences. (pp. 121–136). Dordrecht: Springer Press. ​
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Sustainability of Freshwater Resources  A primary goal of our research is to integrate field collected data with hydrologic modeling techniques to predict the potential impacts of environmental change on water resources and the distribution and diversity of aquatic organisms, from microbes to vertebrates. Our work also focuses on investigating the potential of climate adaptation strategies to produce increase freshwater system resilience in the coming decades. 
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Bombus pratorum, DigitalCommons
3.  Insect Pollinator Conservation Policy
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Urban bees are one of conservation's best-kept secrets. Research from our lab and collaborators has found that cities can be important refuges for wild bee species — including some that are endangered — because diverse urban gardens and greenspaces provide habitat that increasingly fragmented rural and homogenized agricultural landscapes no longer do. Cities make decisions about lawns, gardens, parks, pesticides, and landscaping that can improve or undo these benefits. We study what municipal governments, homeowners, and community organizations are doing to protect insect pollinators — and why some policies represent innovations ready to scale up. 

The project couples social science field research, citizen engagement, public policy research to examine relationships between pollinator health and urban land-use decision making in cities. Findings from this project will inform the development (and communication of) insect pollinator health policies and provide an empirical approach for evaluating habitat conservation programs. 

Projects include:​
  • "Unveiling municipal policy innovations for insect pollinator conservation: Lessons for Rusty-patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) recovery" 2026–2028
  • “Bees in US States' wildlife action plans 2005–2014, 2015–2024”
  • "Insect pollinator conservation policy innovations at subnational levels"
  • "Urban wildlife conservation: Partnering with urban residential homeowners for habitat conservation from the wild bee’s perspective"
  • "The Social and Cultural Drivers of Pollinator Health in Detroit"
  • "Social and Ecological Drivers of Pollinator Health: Interdisciplinary Research Strategies for Addressing the Pollinator Conservation Crisis"
​
This work is funded by:  Sarah K. deCoizart Perpetual Charitable Trust, The Missouri Department of Conservation, the Beaumont Faculty Development, Center for Sustainability's Sustainability Innovation Fund, and Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation

This work is conducted in collaboration with: The Saint Louis Zoo, the WildCare Institute Center for Native Pollinator Conservation, Missouri Department of Conservation, Saint Louis University Department of Biology, The Billiken Bee Lab, PureAir Seeds, Gateway Greening, Sustainable Backyard Tour, The Greenhouse Venture, Brightside St. Louis, others

Related Publications:
  1. Harris, KL, Hall, DM, Finke, DL. 2023. Who cares about monarch butterflies? Comparing US State Wildlife Action Plans 2015–2025. Conservation Letters.  DOI: 10.1111/conl.12976. 
  2. Burr, AK, Hall, DM, Schaeg, N. 2021. Wildness and wild spaces in residential yards: Changing neighborhood norms to support pollinator populations. Sustainability, 13(22):12861, https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212861 
  3. Hall, DM, Martins, DJ. 2020. Human dimensions of insect pollinator conservation. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 38, 10.1016/j.cois.2020.04.001
  4. Hall, DM, Steiner, R. 2019. Insect pollinator conservation policy innovations at subnational levels: Lessons for lawmakers. Environmental Science & Policy, 93:118–128. 
  5. Burr, A., Schaeg, N., Hall, D.M. 2018. Assessing Residential Front Yards Using Google Street View and Geospatial Video: A Virtual Survey Approach for Urban Pollinator Conservation. Applied Geography, 92: 12-20.  
  6. Burr, AK, Hall, DM, Schaeg, N, 2018. The perfect lawn: exploring neighborhood socio-cultural drivers for insect pollinator habitat. Urban Ecosystems, 21(6):1123–1137.
  7. Hall, D.M., Camilo, G.D., Tonietto, R.K., Ollerton, J., Ahrné, K., Arduser, M., Ascher, J.S., Baldock, K.C.R., Fowler, R.E., Frankie, G.W., Goulson, D., Gunnarsson, B., Hanley, M.E., Jackson, J.I., Langellotto, G., Lowenstein, D., Minor, E.S., Philpott, S.M., Potts, S.G., Sirohi, M.H., Spevak, E.M., Stone, G., Threlfall, C., 2017. The city as a refuge for insect pollinators. Conservation Biology. 31(1):24–29. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12840 ​

Joining the Lab

Students in my lab work at the intersection of field-based empirical social science and environmental governance. We do fieldwork in real-world settings. We sit with communities, read policy documents, conduct interviews, and take seriously the idea that the social system is an equally interesting site of inquiry as the ecological one. We conduct research that is policy relevant and aims to advance sustainability. We value creativity and diverse educational backgrounds. If you are drawn to theoretical questions about why institutions fail and empirical work that takes place seriously as a unit of analysis, I'd like to hear from you. 

PhDs in the lab are granted in Marine & Environmental Sciences, Public Policy, or Human Behavior & Sustainability Science. 

Prospective Students: Please email: Your CV, a statement of your interest in our work, noting your anticipated fit with the lab's research to: [email protected].

Visit the Northeastern University Graduate Studies  (phd.northeastern.edu/program/marine-and-environmental-sciences-2/) website for application information for the Marine and Environmental Sciences program. 

Deadline: PhD December-Janurary; others rolling
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Northeastern University, Nahant Campus - Hall Sust. Sci. Lab
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Northeastern University, Boston Campus - Classes