What is Urban Environmental Stewardship? Working Toward a Practitioner-Derived Definition in Seattle

While “stewardship” is often used to describe environmental improvement efforts, it is difficult to find an agreed upon definition of the term. Current research examines stewardship programs, activities, networks, and outcomes. A comprehensive definition should take into account the perspectives of all stakeholders. Practitioners and project managers have particularly direct experiences of stewardship, however little has been done to determine how they define the term and its implementation. Establishing a shared concept of stewardship is essential to further research, and the intent of this preliminary study is to begin to develop a definition. Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (3CM)1