1. MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM
How Do Climate Science Boundary Organizations Matter to Local Climate Policy?
Alexander Hurley, Dr. Derek Kauneckis (Advisor), Jackie Kloepfer
BIO-SKETCH: Alexander Hurley is a student in the Master of Science in Environmental Studies program within the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University in Athens, OH. He is set to graduate in May of 2018, and can be contacted by at
INTRODUCTION
Local level climate activities represent significant drivers of climate adaptation efforts across the United States1. These efforts include actions like updating community transportation, designing infrastructure to withstand more extreme storm events, or increasing the resiliency of local food systems. However, the adaptation efforts of these localities are often hindered by limits related to knowledge, finances, and/or organizational capacity. Many local governments and public agencies turn to boundary organizations (see definition below) associated with climate science in order to fill that missing capacity. Relatively little is known about the nature of boundary organization work at the local level within the realm of climate adaptation. The aim of this project is to examine patterns between boundary organizations and local government adaptation efforts around the United States. GIS techniques were used to analyze boundary organization populations in set buffer zones around local governments that responded to a 2014 survey of local climate activity in the United States and reported climate policy innovations of some kind.
Figure 2. A national map of Local Climate Change Policy (LCCP) survey respondents overlaid with clusters of top research universities as determined by total FY15 research expenditures. This map was produced by Jackie Kloepfer, Research Associate at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
METHODS
Data on local governments was collected in 2014 as part of a survey organized through the Local Climate Change Policy project (LCCP). This survey was sent to 11,751 organizations listed in the 2013 Leadership State-Muni Premium online database, and received 1,233 responses (11.4%). 733 local agencies identified as performing some kind of climate policy innovation4. Data on climate boundary organizations was collected from public sources provided by NSF, NOAA, USDA, DOE, and DOI websites.
Figure 4. Local government respondents from the 2014 LCCP survey were asked to indicate how often their organization used each of the above sources in order to gain information on the impacts of climate change to the activities of their organization. Those involved covered in this poster study are federal agencies and universities.
Sources of Climate Change Information for
Local Governments and Public Agencies
Figure 1. Conceptual model for boundary work adapted from a model created by the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences + Assessments (GLISA), NOAA’s Great Lakes RISA office. Original model found at
Conceptual Model of Climate-Related Boundary Work
Climate
Science Producer
Climate Science User
Boundary Organization
Figure 3. A national map of the non-university boundary organizations included in this study (see list in the Role of Boundary Organizations section) overlaid with 50 mile buffers from LCCP survey respondents. This map was produced by Jackie Kloepfer, Research Associate at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
RESULTS AND FUTURE WORK
Initial results suggest a strong geographical correlation between local climate innovators and universities serving as boundary organizations. The federal boundary organizations show a weaker geographic correlation with local climate innovators, especially in Florida, parts of Texas, and the tri-state area of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
Future work will involve analyses of spatial statistics, network structures, and organizational connectivity. Factors that will be considered during further analysis include:
Urban vs. Rural Geography
Level of Development
Socioeconomic Demographics
Local and State Partisanship
Degree of Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Activities
Climate Network Membership
Perceptions of Climate Change Threats
State-Level Climate Policy Influence
ROLE OF BOUNDARY ORGANIZATIONS
Boundary organizations are defined as those organizations that exist in a hybrid space between the interconnected realms of policy and science. These organizations serve several important roles for both realms, including spreading knowledge, building organizational and network capacity, disseminating funding, and developing and supporting partnerships, to name a few. To be effective, these organizations must be perceived as credible, legitimate, salient, and provide action-oriented support3. The boundary organizations in this study include:
Top U.S. Research Universities according to FY15 R&D Expenditures (Count: 609)
DOE National Laboratories (Count: 20)
USDA Climate Hubs (Count: 10)
NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (Count: 12)
NOAA Regional Climate Centers (Count: 6)
NCEI Regional Climate Services Directors (Count: 6)
DOI Climate Science Centers - Host Institutions and Consortia Members (Count: 36)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bulkeley, H., & Castan Broto, V. (2013). Government by experiment? Global cities and the governing of climate change. Transactions Of The Institute Of British Geographers, (3), 361. doi: /j x
"GLISA Approach." GLISA: A NOAA RISA TEAM, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences + Assessments, glisa.umich.edu/function/glisa-approach.
Graham, A., & Mitchell, C. L. (2016). The role of boundary organizations in climate change adaptation from the perspective of municipal practitioners. Climatic Change, (3-4), 381. doi: /s
Kauneckis, D., & Terman, J. (forthcoming). Innovating From Below: The Landscape of Local Climate Policy Innovation in the United States. Regional Environmental Change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A big thank you to Dr. Derek Kauneckis for the opportunity to work on this project; and for sharing wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. And thank you to Jackie Kloepfer for the beautiful maps!