CAS-Climate: Workshop on Resilience Research and Practice in the Gulf Region

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This grant is in support of a three-day workshop to bring together scholars and stakeholders for the purpose of building a community of practice focused on climate resilience research and practice in the Gulf Region. Climate change is affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the Gulf Region, from the tip of Florida to the Texas coast. Across this vast swath, urban centers such as Houston, the fourth largest and one of the most diverse cities of the US, and small coastal towns, are all nested within one of the planet’s most biodiverse and productive ecosystems. The Gulf Region also contains a disproportionate number of people who are considered socially vulnerable to disasters. These chronic stressors are worsened by climate change, evolving population dynamics, aging infrastructure capacity and condition, and rapid industrial and technological change. The Gulf Coast region will be bellwether of change, providing either successful or failed adaptation examples for the entire nation as climate impacts increase. The workshop provides an opportunity for researchers, policymakers, and communities to work together towards: 1) shaping research to undertake co-design and research translation so that needs of community stakeholders are prioritized, and 2) moving research findings into actionable knowledge. Workshop cross-disciplinary interactions will help identify needs in the research community and at the intersection of research and practice. There are many researchers in the STEM and humanities disciplines that are focused on questions relating to climate resilience in the Gulf Coast region. They are not, however, linked in region-specific interdisciplinary or research-to-action networks. This means that there is lack of awareness among researchers about work other researchers might be doing that is relevant to their own, and there is lack of coordination among research thrusts such that stakeholders might be able to more efficiently interact and use the knowledge outputs of resilience research. Moreover, the Gulf Coast region is uniquely diverse in its interfaces between urban centers and rural areas, and resilience research must address these challenges, among other major gaps that exist in the understanding of the interactions of human and natural systems in this region. Workshop sessions target engendering meaningful communication and allowing for focused discussion of ideas presented by leaders in a range of relevant disciplines, to result in a convergent prospectus of resilience research initiatives at the interface of environmental and urban systems. This workshop will initiate transdisciplinary research relationships through: 1) Professional development of early career faculty and city/state level and policy professionals in introductory socio- environmental modeling, 2) Meeting the increasing demand for workers with interdisciplinary training in navigating the complex interplay between rapid climate change and resulting stresses in ecosystem and engineered services, 3) Developing of a network of scholars, government representatives, and community organizations focused on building resilience across the Gulf Region. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.