UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Faced with more extreme weather events, communities may need to adapt to heightened risks from sea-level rise, flooding or wildfires. And while scientific research can help inform adaptations, the process requires an alignment of academic resources and real-world needs and partnerships that can be challenging for scientists to navigate.
A team led by researchers from Penn State have developed a new framework to help scientists identify and choose projects that may better address pressing societal needs, like climate adaptations. They recently published their findings in the journal [Earth's Future.](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024EF004908)
“There’s a huge amount of climate adaptation that needs to happen, and there’s a lot of academic research being done to support that,” said Casey Helgeson, assistant research professor in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State and lead author of the study. “But many scientists are just learning how to do this kind of research in collaboration with societal partners. And as impacts from climate change continue to grow, these collaborations are becoming more and more important.”
Traditionally, Helgeson said, many scientists pick study locations with a strong bias toward where they have previously worked. But this approach may miss places that may have greater needs and — importantly — places where the research can practically inform implementation on realistic timeframes and resources, according to Helgeson.
“Choices about which — and whose — adaptation challenges we research can have important societal consequences,” Helgeson said. “But a typical process and timeline for research planning may not allow for much exploration of this dimension.”
The team said they sought to create a general framework that could serve as a more deliberate and exploratory approach for choosing research locations. Broadly categorized by listening to needs, refining goals, assessing options and prioritizing actions, the framework was designed to guide groups working on place-based research projects across disciplines.
They applied their framework to a real-world research project — a five-year, $20 million effort to address costal climate risks in the Northeast United States funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). That project, led by Rutgers University, involves scientists from across disciplines at 13 universities, including Penn State.
At the beginning of the project, the team looked for potential research locations in coastal New Jersey and conducted interviews with people in those communities — asking questions like what adaptation problems face your community, what partners exist to tackle these challenges and on what timeframe are adaptations needed.
The team collated the answers into possible research opportunities and evaluated them from a variety of perspectives. After another round of interviews and evaluation, the researchers picked five locations and started more serious negotiations with potential partners — like municipal planners, floodplain managers or city council members — in the prioritized locations.
“I think placed-based research is balancing three things: what’s going to lead to the most productive science, where are you going to have the best relationships to do that research and where is that research going to have the best societal benefit,” Helgeson said. “There is a clear ethical dimension to how you prioritize things. We are not telling people what to prioritize, but we are offering them one way to think about it and suggesting they try to be transparent about the values that are driving their choices.”
A guiding framework can help address challenges that arise from things like working in large teams with scientists from across disciplines and universities, Helgeson explained.
It can also serve as a roadmap to present to funding agencies. Traditionally, when scientists apply for funding, they must present a plan about what work they will do and who their partners on the project will be, Helgeson said.
“At the same time, there can be a benefit to figuring out where a research effort can do the most scientific and societal good — which takes time and money,” Helgeson said. “So, part of the goal of having this generalized framework is to have something to show to funders that demonstrates a concrete process for using societal engagement to finalize aspects of the proposed research.”
Nancy Tuana, DuPont/Class of 1949 Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, also contributed from Penn State.
Other researchers on the project were: Klaus Keller, professor at Dartmouth College; DeeDee Bennett Gayle, associate professor at the State University of New York at Albany; Sönke Dangendorf, assistant professor at Tulane University; Elisabeth Gilmore, associate professor at Carleton University; Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba, associate professor at the University of Florida; Michael Oppenheimer, professor at Princeton University; Thomas Wahl, associate professor at the University of Central Florida; and Lisa Auermuller, executive director of the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, Robert Kopp, professor, Katie Parrish, program coordinator, and Victoria Ramenzoni, assistant professor, all at Rutgers University.
The NSF, Dartmouth College and Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute and Center for Climate Risk Management co-supported this work.