Adaptation, international development & knowledge translation
UW's Marta Berbes-Blazquez in Chicago, IL
IDRC project leaders from UW present initial findings at large interdisciplinary conference
IC3 member Sarah Burch, Marta Berbes-Blazquez and PhD Candidate Maxwell Hartt were presenters at this year's American Association of Geographers (AAG) conference in Chicago, Illinois--one of the biggest conferences of its kind.
Sarah, Marta and Maxwell's presentations focused on sharing preliminary findings from a two year research project entitled: Development of a system to enhance and manage information on adaptation options arising from the IDRC Climate Change and Water (CCW) program, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The project is led by Ewa Jackson at ICLEI Canada. Sarah and Carrie Mitchell are primary co-investigators on the project, which also involves UW faculty members Dan Scott, Johanna Wandel, Nandita Basu, Derek Armitage, and Peter Johnson.
Having just recently finished with data analysis, the researchers chose to present their preliminary results and ideas at AAG, revolving around the themes of climate change, governance, resilience, and knowledge translation. This conference gave them a unique opportunity to engage with and receive feedback from a wide community of scholars and experts from various disciplines.
Sarah’s presentation focused on the patterns emerging from the analysis of 50+ climate change adaptation projects in developing countries. Marta’s work builds on this analysis to assess the resilience of adaptation strategies emerging from these projects. Maxwell's approach looked specifically at the effectiveness of web-based platforms to disseminate knowledge about climate change adaptation.
All of the presentations were well-received and sparked important discussions.
Of her experience, Marta Berbes-Blazquez said:
People reacted positively to my presentation where I described the framework that I am using to evaluate the resilience of climate change adaptation options. I felt encouraged because resilience and climate change have often evolved in parallel, so it makes me think that we are doing important interdisciplinary work to utilize insights from both
As this IDRC project continues moving forward, these efforts will help to identify best practices in climate change adaptation in developing countries.