Delta Institute works with communities throughout the Midwest to solve complex environmental challenges. We envision a region in which all communities and landscapes thrive through an integrated approach to environmental, economic, and social challenges.
We are a trusted 501c3 partner who is working with hundreds of communities, municipal departments, nonprofits, and for-profit companies to achieve a more sustainable and vibrant Midwest.
Understanding conservation behavior is one of the key factors in designing effective programs. To assess this factor, Delta Institute and Environmental Working Group identified conservation hotspots and evaluated the impact of relevant factors. The analysis suggests that strategies focused on conservation adoption should be modified to focus on local conditions and concerns, avoiding a state-wide or uniform program design that fails to consider local factors.
Delta Institute is working with local groups and public agencies to complete in-depth community engagement centered around shoreline resilience planning and implementation for the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago.
Delta is working with community partners to install and monitor the impacts of four nature-based Green Infrastructure projects in the Chicago neighborhoods of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore in concert with Emerald South’s Terra Firma project and with the Metropolitan Planning Council. We will offer learnings, best practices, and results with other stakeholders and practitioners to inform Green Infrastructure installation in other Chicago neighborhoods and throughout the broader Midwest.
The Delta Institute, with funding from the Great Lakes Protection Fund, is partnering with the Water Finance Exchange, the Resilience Innovation Network, the cities of Hobart, Michigan City, and Merrillville, Indiana, and many other municipal partners, to investigate the barriers to implementing GI in Great Lakes communities.
Delta Institute serves as the Midwestern Hub for The Resilience Innovation Hub, focused on climate resilience, municipal planning, and insurance/reinsurance in the face of rising premiums and climate-impacted natural disasters.
Understanding conservation behavior is one of the key factors in designing effective programs. To assess this factor, Delta Institute and Environmental Working Group identified conservation hotspots and evaluated the impact of relevant factors. The analysis suggests that strategies focused on conservation adoption should be modified to focus on local conditions and concerns, avoiding a state-wide or uniform program design that fails to consider local factors.
The City of Chicago has the opportunity to implement strategies to tackle waste and materials management that impact our economy, environment, and citizens every day. These strategies offer opportunities to reduce waste; increase diversion through reuse, recycling,...
To better understand the socioeconomic, environmental, and political dynamics that impact the success of agricultural conservation programs in Southeast Michigan, Delta Institute compiled and summarized data on producer demographics, land use, cropping area, tenure status, conservation practices, and conservation program participation and outcomes.
This project aims to reduce excessive phosphorus loading in the Kalamazoo River Watershed associated with agricultural sources through a market and performance-based agricultural incentive program. Performance-based programs can provide a more targeted approach to investing in conservation when program funding is limited.
This project addressed sediment loading associated with agricultural sources, such as cropland erosion, livestock access, and road/bridge crossings that impacts habitat and water quality in the Rabbit River through a performance-based program for implementing agricultural best management practices. In addition to targeting sedimentation, the project also provided co-benefits of addressing other pollutants such as nutrients and pathogens, largely stemming from livestock access, and pesticides/chemicals, resulting from cropland erosion.