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Global Change Assessment Staff
The GCAS has been also working with the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), who has recently placed markedly increased emphasis on the goal of improving decision making and adaptive management, as reflected in the CCSP's Strategic Plan. The CCSP has indicated that it will meet this goal through the development of "decision support resources," including a collection of products called the "decision support toolbox." The term "decision support" reflects the broad purpose of making scientific knowledge more readily available and more useful to decision makers in organizations at various levels of government and in the private and nonprofit sectors. The GCAS distinguishes itself from other climate impacts research groups by its stakeholder orientation and emphasis on the importance of engaging decision makers in its assessments to ensure that the assessment products are timely and useful (i.e., providing "decision support"). But the GCAS has already learned a couple of important lessons from their assessment activities since 1998. First, there are many different classes of climate-sensitive decisions being made in different regions of the country. Second,that the provision of "decision support" that leads to better environmental outcomes is a complex activity, and entails more than the conduct of assessments. The goal of GCAS is to learn how to engage in activities that lead to better informed management and policy decisions and improve societal/environmental outcomes.
Background
An Integrated Framework of Research and Assessment.
The framework of research and assessment that the GCAS uses is integrated along intersecting lines of place and issue. The focus areas are issue-based efforts, bounded along topical lines (e.g., air and water quality, human health, and ecosystems) rather than according to region or place. Yet, these focused topics invariably overlay region- or place-based contexts. The integration of place and topical focus means that research and assessment activities in a region like the Mid-Atlantic have a regional focus, but are organized around issues of concern, e.g., ecosystems, human health, and water resources.- A Place-Based Approach
- EPA has long emphasized the importance of understanding environmental consequences from a regional perspective. As NCEA's GCAS strives to understand relative risks in the context of multiple stressors, at multiple scales and multiple levels of biological and institutional organization, a place-based framework provides the means for that integration. Place-based study also is naturally suited to the information requirements of decision makers. An environmental problem and its solution are often unique to a location. By establishing relationships with stakeholders at regional (or sub-regional) scales, NCEA's GCAS is able to engage locally-based decision makers in the assessment process. These partnerships, while useful to the assessment, encourage a sense of ownership in the scientific results and a readiness to employ assessment outcomes to inform decision making.
- An Issue-Based Approach
- NCEA's GCAS has decided to focus its work in four issue areas: the effects of global change on air quality, water quality, ecosystems, and human health. The four focus areas are interdependent and are enmeshed in the overall place-based framework. Changes in air or water quality may have important implications for human and ecosystem health. Changes in ecosystems due to climate or land-use change may affect water quality or the spread of infectious diseases. Changes in the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events (e.g., floods, droughts, wildfires) could simultaneously affect public health, air and water quality, and ecosystems. Research and assessment must capture the interactions between the issue-based focus areas and the specific impressions that place imparts on the impacts of global change. Coastal vulnerabilities along the Mid-Atlantic are both similar to and dissimilar from those along the Gulf. The integration of place and issue helps assessors identify common ground while highlighting differences.
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