Don Nelson and UGA collaborators Brian Bledsoe and Marshall Shepherd have a new publication that underscores the importance of scientific humility in addressing hydroclimatic challenges in the 21st C. The article highlights three areas that need to be simultaneously addressed  to reduce risk and promote equitable and sustainable risk management: Humans as a part of nature; Engineering with a dynamic nature; and, Acknowledging complexity. 

Nelson, D.R., Bledsoe, B., and M Shepherd. 2020. From hubris to humility: Transcending original sin in managing hydroclimate risk management. Anthropocene. doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2020.100239.
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Lab member John Ryan McGreevy and colleague Kevin Colburn (American Whitewater) recently completed a report that analyzes congestion and interaction between different types of visitors along the Upper Chattooga River Wild and Scenic River Corridor. McGreevy presented preliminary findings at UGA’s Integrative Conservation Conference in February. The authors have since submitted the completed report to members of the USDA Forest Service and advocacy groups for different visitor types. This report adds to a decades-long discussion on how to manage the Chattooga River in ways that protect the natural environment and maintain wilderness experience for visitors. Novel insights from McGreevy and Colburn’s analysis of six years of data on river use, river flow, and rainfall will hopefully contribute to adaptive management and inform future policy formation. 
Read the full report here. 

Shelly's insightful piece on the ways that rural populations in Kentucky and Northeast Brazil are challenging marginalization and discrimination is now available to read in Anthropology News.
https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2020/02/24/radical-media-challenges-rural-stereotypes/

Don and John McGreevy were co-authors on a recent publication in Environmental Research Letters - "Advancing the integration of ecosystem services and livelihood adaptation"

The paper evaluates limitations of mainstream conceptualizations of ecosystem service flows, and discusses methodological tools and emerging research from multiple disciplines that can help overcome those limitations.  We present a research framework that integrates ecosystem service analysis with principles from Sustainable Livelihood Analysis and the rapidly emerging field of adaptation studies in social-ecological systems.  Coupling these complementary approaches can give more holistic and realistic understandings of ecosystem service flows and who benefits from them. 

King, E. G., D. R. Nelson, and J. R. McGreevy. 2019. Advancing the integration of ecosystem services and livelihood adaptation. Environmental Research Letters 14:124057.

Open Access:  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5519

Shelly will be headed to Pernambuco, Brazil to conduct her dissertation research "Reassessing Biofuel Development through Gendered Eco-Social Experiences". She will be interning with the Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento e Sustentabilidade (IABS) and working with Prof. Christine Rufino Dabat at the Federal University of Pernambuco. 

Congrats Shelly!

ICON and Anthropology PhD student Emily Horton selected as finalist for the 2020 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, sponsored by the National Sea Grant College Program. Building upon her marine conservation and fisheries research in Brazil, Emily will be placed with a federal agency in Washington D.C. for one year to gain experience with domestic marine policy processes.
Read full Georgia Sea Grant press release here: 
https://gacoast.uga.edu/uga-graduate-students-selected-as-knauss-finalists/
Learn more about the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship:
​https://seagrant.noaa.gov/Knauss-Fellowship-Program

Celebrated French philosopher Bruno Latour travels with Duke University Critical Zone scientist Dan Richter to the John C. Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory in rural South Carolina to observe how deep soil erosion gives a more nuanced view of the Anthropocene.

With cameo appearances from HECLab members!

https://youtu.be/6sVDpDXIMSw​

In June, Jon Hallemeier went to Spokane, WA for initial training as a Conservation Connect Fellow with the National Forest Foundation. In this year-long fellowship, Jon will receive training in facilitation and other skills, engage with academics and professionals working in environmental conflict and collaboration, and help support forest collaboratives working through difficult social and ecological issues. ​