Projects

The Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Project

We are working with public officials, corporate leaders, environmental action groups and neighborhood advocates to promote broad-gauged public education and public involvement in the assessment of climate change risks and the implementation of risk management strategies. We are particularly concerned about the disproportionate impacts that poor communities and communities of color are likely to experience as a result of sea level rise, storm intensification, coastal erosion, changes in precipitation patterns, creation of heat islands, and threats to infrastructure, water supplies and endangered habitats. We have three role play simulations that will be tested in the coming year to determine the extent to which they help stakeholders model the collaborative decision-making processes necessary to formulate community-=based risk-management strategies.

Assessing Ecosystem Sustainability and Vulnerability to Climate Change in the Lower Mississippi Valley

We are conducting research to assess the potential impacts of changing climate on the trust resources and endangered species -- as well as the sustainability and vulnerability of the ecosystems that support them -- in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). One question we address is, “When most of the land is privately owned, how can conservation practices at the landscape-scale be implemented?” This is a continuation of our on-going efforts to examine more effective ways of integrating federal and state resource planning efforts that begin with different, but overlapping, geographically defined boundaries.

Chesapeake Bay—A Collaborative Simulation Process and Toolkit for Building “Coast-Smart” Communities in Maryland

We have developed a multi-party negotiation game (simulation) and policy toolkit that are being used to help Maryland coastal communities understand the moves they can make (and their implied costs) in an effort to adapt to and blunt the adverse impacts of climate change. We are working to publicize the toolkit so that all Maryland coastal communities can use it. Our client is the state Coastal Zone Commission that has the lead on climate change in Maryland.

Guidance Tools for Planning and Management of Urban Drainage Systems under a Changing Climate
(Aurora, CO and Somerville, MA)

Present and future management of urban runoff is made more complicated by the potential long-term impacts of climate change. Our objective is to formulate new options that urban water managers can use to respond to the challenges of drainage management in the face of climate change.  Funding comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Offshore Wind Farms: Adaptive Strategies to Achieve Sustainable Energy in the Face of Changing Climate

For the United States to adapt to and prepare for the impacts of changing climate, we need to promote more sustainable energy production. We are working to document the new regulatory framework governing the siting of off-shore wind farms in the Eastern United States (as a result of the 2005 National Energy Policy Act). Our assumption is that state governments have a crucial role to play and that federal and state regulatory reviews will need to be coordinated, as will efforts to engage multiple stakeholders in implementing state-level sustainable energy policies.