The NOAA-OGP Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program: Informing the development of placed-based services in responding to environmental stresses

This presentation will focus on the development and evolution of a long-term regional interdisciplinary research and assessments program. It will serve as a lead-in to a Special Session on the results of the program and on efforts for maintaining climate-related decision support and services on an ongoing basis. From the NOAA perspective, Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments involve the intersection of three major coordinates, (1) Climate and environmental monitoring and research, (2) Economic and Human Dimensions research, especially on trends and factors influencing climate-sensitive human activities, and (3) Applications and decision support i.e. the transformation and communication of relevant research results to meet specific needs in a region.

The objective of the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program is contribute to informing the development of place-based decision support and services in responding to climate-related risks and environmental stresses. Enabling such services at any point in time requires a critical mass of knowledge and of capacity to apply knowledge, e.g. tailoring information to meet local needs, within each region. The integrated scientific assessment component constitutes the sum of efforts to (1) characterize the state of knowledge of environmental variations and changes at appropriate scales of interest, (2) identify knowledge gaps and clarify linkages in selected climate-environment-society interactions, and (3) provide an informed basis for (a) responding to climate-related risks, and for b) establishing priorities in basic research investments to meet these needs. RISA activities require innovative partnerships among a spectrum of interests (Federal, State, local and private etc.) to enable organizational capacity within a region for developing accurate balanced syntheses (i.e. identifying risks, uncertainties, critical knowledge gaps etc.), and services on an ongoing basis. As such, the RISA Program relies heavily on consolidating the results and data from ongoing NOAA and other disciplinary process research already funded in a region, under an integrative and contextual framework.

At present, there are five regional integrated science and assessments activities funded by NOAA-OGP. These are focused on the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, California, Inter-Mountain West, and the Southeast regions of the United States. As expected, those funded first have begun to make inroads to meeting the goals of the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program. Those in pilot or preliminary stages focus on clarification of initially defined critical regional issues, team building, developing cooperative stakeholder linkages and, data assimilation. Pilot efforts undergo comprehensive reviews and evaluation before consideration of expansion to full assessments. Funds are also targeted, in the Program, towards research on assessment design including comparative studies of assessment processes, transferability of approaches and lessons.