Christine J. Kirchhoff

Moving Climate Information off the Shelf: Boundary Chains and the Role of RISAs as Adaptive Organizations

While research focusing on how boundary organizations influence the use of climate information has expanded substantially in the past few decades, there has been relatively less attention to how these organizations innovate and adapt to different environments and users. This paper investigates how one boundary organization,theGreatLakesIntegratedSciencesandAssessmentsCenter(GLISA),hasadaptedbycreating ‘‘boundary chains’’ to diversify its client base while minimizing transaction costs, increasing scientific knowledge usability, and better meeting client climate information needs. In this approach, boundary organizations connect like links in a chain and together these links span the range between the production of knowledge and its use. Three main chain configurations are identified. In the key chain approach, GLISA has partneredwithotherorganizationsinanumberofseparateprojectssimultaneously,diversifyingitsclientbase without sacrificing customization. In the linked chain approach, GLISA is one of several linked boundary organizations that successively deepen the level of customization to meet particular users’ needs. Finally, by partnering with multiple organizations and stakeholder groups in both configurations, GLISA may be laying the groundwork for enhancing their partners’ own capacity to make climate-related decisions through a networked chain approach that facilitates cooperation among organizations and groups. Each of these approaches represents an adaptive strategy that both enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of participating boundary organizations’ work and improves the provision of climate information that meets users’ needs.

Engaging Stakeholders To Define Feasible and Desirable Agricultural Conservation in Western Lake Erie Watersheds

Widespread adoption of agricultural conservation measures in Lake Eries Maumee River watershed may be required to reduce phosphorus loading that drives harmful algal blooms and hypoxia. We engaged agricultural and conservation stakeholders through a survey and workshops to determine which conservation practices to evaluate. We investigated feasible and desirable conservation practices using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool calibrated for streamflow, sediment, and nutrient loading near the Maumee River outlet. We found subsurface placement of phosphorus applications to be the individual practice most influential on March-July dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) loading from row croplands. Perennial cover crops and vegetated filter strips were most effective for reducing seasonal total phosphorus (TP) loading. We found that practices effective for reducing TP and DRP load were not always mutually beneficial, culminating in trade-offs among multiple Lake Erie phosphorus management goals. Adoption of practices at levels considered feasible to stakeholders led to nearly reaching TP targets for western Lake Erie on average years; however, adoption of practices at a rate that goes beyond what is currently considered feasible will likely be required to reach the DRP target.

Adaptation by stealth: climate information use in the Great Lakes region across scales

While there has been considerable focus on understanding barriers to climate information use associated with the character of climate knowledge, individuals’ negative perception of its usability and constraints of decision-contexts, less attention has been paid to understanding how different scales of decision-making influence information use. In this study, we explore how water and resource managers’ scales of decision-making and scope of decision responsibilities influence climate information use in two Great Lakes watersheds. We find that despite availability of tailored climate information, actual use of information remains low. Reasons include (a) lack of willingness to place climate on agendas because local managers perceive climate change as politically risky, (b) lack of formal mandate or authority at the city and county scale to translate climate information into on-the-ground action, (c) problems with the information itself, and (d) perceived lack of demand for climate information by those managers who have the mandate and authority to use (or help others use) climate information. Our findings suggest that (1) scientists and information brokers should produce information that meets a range of decision needs and reserve intensive tailoring efforts for decision makers who have willingness and authority to use climate information; (2) without support from higher levels of decision-making (e.g., state), it is unlikely that climate information use will accelerate significantly; and (3) the trend towards characterizing climate specific actions within a broader concept of sustainability practices, or “adaptation by stealth,” should be supported as a component of the climate adaptation repertoire.

Characteristics of Integrated Water Resource Management in the Zambezi River and Great Lakes Basins: A Comparison of Two Approaches

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is evolving as a contemporary means to address complex and critical issues associated with making the most effective and efficient use of water resources. Water resource challenges in the Zambezi River Basin include both quality and quantity issues including potential diversions from the basin to localities outside the basin and lack of an agreed upon institutional framework for the management of the Zambezi River system. In 1972, the United States and Canada signed the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. This agreement committed the two countries who share the trans-boundary waters of the Great Lakes to restore and enhance water quality in the Great Lakes System. Amendments in 1987 resulted in establishing the goal to virtually eliminate persistent toxic substances into the Great Lakes resulting from human activities. In 2008, the Great Lakes Compact was approved by all of the eight Great Lakes States plus the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. This compact was subsequently approved by the Congress of the United States and signed by President Bush on October 3, 2008. Both the Zambezi River Basin and the Great Lakes Basin offer valuable insights into the application of IWRM to critical water resource planning and management challenges in their respective geographical locations.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University of Zambia and the University of Michigan: Conception and Subsequent Implementation Goals

In April 2008 the University of Michigan and the University of Zambia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that approved a cooperative agreement to foster the development of a collaborative research and exchange program focused on concepts of integrated water resources management (IWRM) to be applied in the Zambezi River Basin in Southern Africa and the Great Lakes Basin in the U.S. The Zambezi River Basin, home to nearly 40 million people, is the largest river basin in Southern Africa covering 1.37 million square kilometers in eight countries. The Great Lakes Basin watershed is home to about 40 million people living in eight U.S. States and two Canadian Provinces and covers over 1/2 million square kilometers.

Global Change Research: Strategic Planning, Knowledge Production and Barriers to Use

Concerns about global change resulting from global warming, ozone depletion and population pressures provided the motivation for the development of the United States Global Change Research Act (USGCRA) of 1990. The legislation was enacted to develop and coordinate a comprehensive, integrated research program with two primary goals: to advance scientific understanding of global change and provide usable information upon which to develop effective policies to abate, mitigate, and cope with global change. An analysis of the USGCRA and United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was conducted based on an examination of planning and reporting documents and proxy measures. Results of the analysis indicate three areas in which improvements in the policy can be made. The three improvements are: 1) Better metrics for quantifying reduction in uncertainties and knowledge production must be developed and employed to better measure progress, 2) Strengthening interagency working relationships should improve Program continuity particularly during periods of transition. Reducing the frequency of strategic plan revisions from every three years to every five years would help conserve personnel resources and focus energies to enable the 10-year strategic planning timeline for deliverables to be met, and 3) Congress should consider creating an independent governing structure for the USGCRP comprised of a combination of outside experts, lay public, agency scientists/officials and administration scientists/officials. There is limited evidence that water resource managers are using climate change science. This paper lays the foundation for additional work examining research priority setting of the USGCRP as well as an investigation of user information needs and barriers to use.