| Abstract |
Achieving community sustainability requires understanding connected economic, social, and environmental consequences of actions that support informed choices allowing people to lead healthy, productive, and enjoyable lives, now and in the future. Designing successful sustainable development strategies reveals a tight connection between resilience, diversity, and long-lasting stability of social-ecological systems. Dauphin Island (AL) wanted to secure a resilient and sustainable future after experiencing destruction from two hurricanes. During 10 months of a transparent, all-inclusive public consultation process, culminating in a community initiated, driven, and concluded strategic plan, stakeholders designed a program of consensus-building and policy-making toward a more sustainable community with a resilient future. Facilitated stakeholder groups used the Community Capitals Framework to evaluate how various issues historically played important roles in community development. A "spiraling capital assets" model was employed to define points of decline and potential strategic improvement milestones. Resulting plans included shifting the tax base from reliance on expensive rental home lodging and property taxes to growing a more diverse, small business community emphasizing cultural heritage. As an outcome of the planning processes stakeholders examined all community assets (environmental, cultural, historic, etc.) they possessed to determine leverage points for reversing rural economic leakage patterns and promoting new local forms of value-added economic development that protected environmental resources. |