Closing the Gap through Community Science: How Local Collaborations Strengthen Climate Science-based Decision-Support Outcomes
Abstract
Communities across the country today face both the intensification and increased frequency of climate change impacts, including catastrophic floods, crippling heat waves, and the degradation of local air quality. With unprecedented disruption comes the unprecedented need for action to better prepare communities for the impacts of a changing climate. Identifying and using relevant science tools and resources can be a dizzying task for community members. Historically underrepresented and undeserved communities often lack equal access to science. By opening access to science and connecting it in meaningful ways in communities, we help build trust in its process and outcomes.
Through the launch of over 80 projects since 2012, AGU's Thriving Earth Exchange is helping to change the way in which communities connect with science. Thriving Earth Exchange builds collaborations between community members and scientists where science is leveraged to address community priorities. Establishing trust, planning and refining projects, managing relations, and making concrete impact are central to these collaborations. Community science partnerships grounded in local priorities result in the development and use of stronger decision-relevant tools, resources and knowledge. Decision-support takes many forms in these collaborations, including increased understanding of local climate change impacts, bolstering local leaders' confidence, fostering productive conversations between local leaders from private and public sectors, and designing with community input from day one. This presentation will showcase Thriving Earth Exchange projects and highlight both successes and challenges in bridging gaps between climate science and community-level decision-making. Additionally, this presentation will highlight our recent successes connecting to communities typically undeserved and underrepresented in the sciences.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA33E1193W
- Keywords:
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- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 4321 Climate impact;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4343 Preparedness and planning;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 6329 Project evaluation;
- POLICY SCIENCES