Climate service enterprise support of collective impact networks: a case study of Carpe Diem West and climate change adaptation in the U.S. West

Regional partnerships focused on addressing climate variability and change can take many forms. In the U.S. West, Carpe Diem West has evolved, in less than a decade, from a neutral forum to discuss ideas about climate change and water security for people and the environment to become the hub of a large network of water resources practitioners actively seeking, innovating, and implementing solutions at a pace and scale commensurate with the challenges of climate change. The Carpe Diem West network includes leaders and experts from utilities, businesses, public agencies, non-governmental organizations, tribes, communities, science, and academia; RISA researchers and a variety of NOAA personnel have consistently participated in network activities. The Carpe Diem West network is operating as a collective impact network, with Carpe Diem West serving as a backbone organization rather than a boundary organization. Collective impact networks differ from communities of practice and knowledge-to-action networks in ways that are more realistically aligned with complex, large-scale, and volatile social challenges that can be difficult to frame, let alone solve. These “wicked problems” require a multiplicity of solutions, or more realistically, strategies for managing evolving dilemmas and tradeoffs, that emerge from the interaction of many organizations and in many arenas, including policies, programs, practices, and products. This presentation discusses key aspects of collective impact networks and their implications for different sectors of the climate services enterprise, through the lens of Carpe Diem West experience.