Archive of Spotlight Feature Articles

Study Completed on Research and Networks for Decision Support in the NOAA Climate Sectoral Applications Research Program

By Nancy Beller-Simms and Lisa Vaughan – SARP Program Managers

In response to NOAA’s and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program’s strong and continued interest in providing timely climate information for effective decision-making, the NOAA Climate Program Office established the Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) in 2005. The primary goal of SARP is to generate new research-based insights and applications for climate information in support of decision making in high priority, climate-sensitive sectors. Research supported by SARP’s three predecessor programs (Climate Variability and Human Health; Environment, Science and Development; and the Human Dimensions of Global Change Research), and other NOAA efforts such as the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the ongoing Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) and Transition of Research Applications to Climate Services (TRACS) demonstrate the significant impacts and potential value of climate information in a number of diverse sectors, regions, and streams of economic activities, including those associated with human health, water resources, agriculture, disaster mitigation and management, coastal and marine resource management, among others. As a result, shortly after the establishment of SARP, the Climate Program Office (CPO) contracted with the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies to provide input into the development of the program.

This fall, the NRC completed its report on “Research Networks for Decision Support in the NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program”. The NRC committee was asked by NOAA to address the following questions: 1) What role(s) should SARP play in improving understanding of the human dimensions of climate variability and change in ways that can improve decisions in key sectors? 2) What are the best approaches for organizing research support to meet program goals (e.g., grants, centers of excellence, series of workshops, etc.? 3) How should NOAA monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the program? Following a workshop that involved a diverse suite of stakeholders (including Federal agencies) and months of study and discussion, the committee recommended that SARP invest in the following combination of activities over the next few years:

1. “Use-inspired science” by supporting “research to identify and foster the innovations needed to make information about climate variability and change more usable in specific sectors, including research on the processes that influence success or failure in the creation of knowledge-action networks for making climate information useful for decision makers.”
2. Workshops to “identify, catalyze, and assess the potential of knowledge-action networks in sectors, defined by resource areas (e.g., water, coastal resources) or decision-making domains (e.g., emergency response, insurance, planning and zoning).”
3. “Pilot projects to create or enhance a knowledge-action network for supporting climate-related decisions in a sector (defined by resource or decision domain).”

The NRC study further recommended eight principles for selecting activities within each sector: 1) Link to NOAA mission and SARP objectives; 2) Promotion of social innovation in using climate science; 3) High-impact decisions; 4) Leveraging investments through partnerships; 5) Fertile ground; 6) Increasing resilience and adaptability; 7) Equity; 8) Research of interest to social science. Finally, the committee felt that standard evaluation approaches were not relevant to this program, and suggested that a tailored monitoring program should be developed to address evaluation questions.

This report provides this new program with a plethora of opportunities to build upon and expand the first few years of the SARP effort. Initial activities such as initiating and convening a training and sector-requirement Workshop on Climate Science and Services: Coastal Applications for Decision Making through Sea Grant Extension and Outreach and a separate Urban Roundtable to solicit input on a potential Urban Sector, have already provided insights to a variety of decision and policy makers such as local planning (including urban, water and coastal zone management) agencies as well as policy makers involved with the Climate Change Science Program’s Synthesis and Assessment Product writing teams.

In addition, the report provided new insights into decision support networks, which has already proven valuable to researchers in the field. It has also been invaluable to those involved in writing the Climate Change Science Program’s Synthesis and Assessment products.

To view the full report, visit: http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepcms.nsf/weblinks/MKEZ-77DNQ6?OpenDocument.

For additional information about SARP’s coastal management focus, please contact Lisa Vaughan at 301-734-1266, or Lisa.Vaughan@noaa.gov. For additional information about SARP’s water/drought and urban focus, please contact Nancy Beller-Simms at 301-734-1205, or Nancy.Beller-Simms@noaa.gov.

1/28/08

CLIMATE · OCEANS, GREAT LAKES, and COASTS · WEATHER and AIR QUALITY
ABOUT US · RESEARCH PROGRAMS · EDUCATION · HOME

Contact Us
Privacy Policy