Monika has been selected as a Community Science Fellow with the Thriving Earth Exchange, an initiative of the American Geophysical Union that connects fellows and scientists with communities across the United States, Mexico, and South America to co-develop projects tailored to local priorities. Over the next 12-18 months, Monika will lead and facilitate a collaborative science project with the community of Portland, PA. As a community fellow, she will work to foster engagement between community leads and scientists, supporting collaboration and overseeing the project’s development to ensure it remains aligned with the community’s needs. She will also play an active role in sharing the team's work and its impact with a broader audience, emphasizing both the results of the project and the collaborative process that brought it to life. 

In Portland, the primary focus of the project is the development of a comprehensive emergency management plan. The community faces recurring threats from frequent flooding and power outages, severely disrupting daily life and critical services. Portland’s residents want to develop a strategy that addresses these challenges, particularly by ensuring clear procedures are in place to respond to power outages during floods and other emergencies. Monika will work closely with the community to develop an emergency plan that provides a detailed blueprint for local businesses and prospective residents to handle such events effectively. The objective is to foster greater preparedness in Portland and help the communities navigate increasing future crises.  

Don Nelson has a new publication out with lead author Sechindra Vallury and Nathan Cook. "Social inequalities shape climate change adaptation among Indian farmers" looks at adoption of groundwater irrigation technologies using a longitudinal survey to explore uptake and continued use of technologies. The findings, which show that marginalized populations are less likely to take up irrigation technologies or sustain their use contributed to the research that will be carried out in their recently awarded HEGS grant. (see post from 7/18/24). You can read the article here. 

The article “Operationalizing equity for integrated water resources management,” was selected to receive the Lanfear Award from the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). The manuscript was led by HECLab member (now alum) Cydney Seigerman. Co-authors include fellow HECLers Raul Basilio, Shelly Biesel (now alum), Bruno Ubiali, Jon Hallemeier (now alum) and Don Nelson. They were joined by USACE colleagues. The award recognizes the best technical paper published in JAWRA during the previous year. Congratulations team! You can read the publication here.  

HECLab student Alejandro Najera, has been selected to participate in the 8th Student Workshop on International Coastal and Marine Management in the Gulf of Mexico (“SWIMM 2024/25”).

This workshop focuses on assisting in the development of a Socio-Ecosystem Report Card for Coastal Tabasco, Mexico. The event will be held in a mixed virtual and in-person format during Summer/Fall 2024 and January 2025. Participants will engage in three-day formal workshops about the report card development process, led by the Laboratorio Nacional de Resiliencia Costera (LANRESC), in August and November 2024. This experience will culminate in a 10-day, in-person field trip in mid- to late-January 2025, featuring a broader field experience in Tabasco and Quintana Roo, Mexico, as well as a public presentation of the report card to stakeholders. The workshop is sponsored by the Harte Research Institute (HRI – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), and aims to foster the development of Mexico, United States, and Cuba relationships and strengthen research in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sechindra Vallury (PI), Don Nelson (co-PI), and Nathan Cook (co-PI) were awarded funding from the Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program (HEGS) for their project titled "Equitable Pathways to Climate-Smart Agriculture: Rethinking Adaptation as a Continuum". The research investigates the challenges faced by farmers in adapting to global climate change, focusing on differences among various types of farmers and over time.  The project asks three related questions: who can adapt their farming practices to climate change, how does this ability vary among different farmers, especially those belonging to historically disadvantaged groups, and what are the long-term impacts of these differences on the sustainability of agriculture? The work will take place in the Indian states of ​Maharashtra and Bihar.

Members of the Brazil Natural Resources Governance Initiative (BNRGI) were selected to participate in a ​in a training program hosted by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) . The BNRGI project is focused on climate-resilient agroforestry in the Brazilian Amazon and aims to pilot participatory action-research in partnership with Afro-descendant quilombola communities in Marajó archipelago in the Amazon estuary. 

​The project is co-constructed with the grassroots organization Campinas/Vila União Center for Quilombola Action and Resistance (NARQ). The team is led by Prof. Monique Medeiros of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and includes Luciane Lopes and Glenda Leão of NARQ, Prof. Daniel Braga (UFPA), and Profs. Don Nelson and Gregory Thaler (University of Georgia).

As part of the wrap-up to his NSF funded dissertation work "Measuring Variation in Water Pollution Impacts and Water Insecurity Infrastructures Across Socioeconomic Status" Raul held a day long photovoice exhibit at the Chico Mendes park in Rio De Janeiro. The park hosts daily classroom visits with young students and receives visitors from all over the city. A great way to share what Raul and his local collaborators have been up to!

Congratulations, Gabrielle! She will leave for Ceará, Brazil in September 2024 to work on her project "What is soil? A socio-ecological approach to understanding soils". She will be supported in her work by long-time lab collaborators at the Ceará Foundation for Meteorology and Water Resources (FUNCEME).

Congratulations, Kate! This is an incredible honor and we are very happy for you! Kate's dissertation research, co-developed with local community members will focus on biodiversity and conservation in the Colombian Amazon.