Improving Environmental Communication and Adaptation Decision-making in the Humanitarian Sector
ENVS 5909-902/CSTP 5909
University of Colorado
Spring Semester 2017
Course Themes and Readings
Week 7 & 8
Optional Themes Relevant to Intern Placement Late April & Early May Dates TBD
These themes and associated readings may be relevant depending on the interns’ final placements. The instructor will work with participants to select from these or other topics.
Participatory Methods & Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments
- The Art and Science of VCA
- ABC of VCA
- How to do a VCA (In Dropbox (DB))
- VCA Tool Box (In DB)
- What is a VCA (in DB)
van Aalst, Maarten (2008). Community Level Adaptation to Climate Change: The Potential Role of Participatory Community Risk Assessment. Global Environmental Change 18: 165–179.
Roncoli, C. (2006). Ethnographic and participatory approaches to research on farmers’ responses to climate predictions. Climate Research 33: 81-99.
Peterson, N., Broad, K., Orlove, B.S., Roncoli, C., Taddei, R., Velez, M.A. (2009). Participatory processes and climate forecast use: sociocultural context, discussion, and consensus. Climate and Development 2(2010): 14-29.
Pelling, M. (2007). Learning from Others: The Scope and Challenges for Participatory Risk Assessment. Disasters 31(4) 373-385.
Forecast-based Financing
Coughlan de Perez, E., van den Hurk, B., van Aalst, M. K., Jongman, B., Klose, T., & Suarez, P. (2014). Forecast-based financing: an approach for catalyzing humanitarian action based on extreme weather and climate forecasts. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2(5), 3193–3218. doi:10.5194/nhessd-2-3193-2014
de Perez, E. C., Monasso, F., van Aalst, M. K., & Suarez, P. (2014a). Science to prevent disasters. Nature Publishing Group, 7(2), 78–79. doi:10.1038/ngeo2081
de Perez, E. C., van Aalst, M. K., van den Hurk, B., & Suarez, P. (2014b). Forecast-based disaster risk management: A financial mechanism for climate-informed humanitarian action. Presentation of Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, The Netherlands.
Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre (2015) 'Humanitarian History' Made as Uganda Red Cross Launches Forecast-based Financing for Real.
Climate Services
Brasseur, G., & Gallardo, L. (2016). Climate Services: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects. Earth’s Future, n/a–n/a. doi:10.1002/2015ef000338
Hewitt, C., Mason, S., and Walland, D. (2012). The Global Framework for Climate Services. Nature Climate Change. 2: 831-832.
Dinku et al. (2014). Bridging Critical Gaps in Climate Services and Applications in Africa. Earth Perspectives. 1:15.
Climate Service Ethics
Vaughan, C., & Dessai, S. (2014). Climate services for society: Origins, institutional arrangements, and design elements for an evaluation framework. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(5), 587-603. doi:10.1002/wcc.290
Adams, P., Eitland, E., Hewistson, B., Vaughan, C., Wilby, R., & Zebiak, S. (2015). Toward an ethical framework for climate services: A white paper of the climate services partnership working group on climate services ethics. Climate Services Partnership
Lourenço, T. C., Swart, R., Goosen, H., & Street, R. (2015). The rise of demand-driven climate services. Nature Climate Change, 6(1), 13–14.
Tozier de la Poterie & Daly (2016). Forthcoming Book Chapter.
Webber, S. & Donner, S. (2016). Climate service warnings: Cautions about commercializing climate science for adaptation in the developing world. WIREs Climate Change. doi: 10.1002/wcc.424.
Wilby, R. (2016). Climate service sector needs robust standards. SciDevNet.
Indigenous Climate Knowledge
Green, D. and Raygorodetsky, G. (2010). Indigenous knowledge of a changing climate. Climatic Change, 100(2010), 239-242.
Co-production of Science and Climate Information
Lemos, M.C. & Morehouse, B. J. (2005). Co-production of science and policy in integrated climate assessments. Global Environmental Change, 15: 57-68.
Meadow, A. M., Ferguson, D. B., Guido, Z., Horangic, A., Owen, G., & Wall, T. (2015). Moving toward the Deliberate Coproduction of Climate Science Knowledge. Weather, Climate, and Society, 7(2), 179–191.
Steynor, A., Padgham, J., Jack, C., Hewitson, B., & Lennard, C. (2016). Co-exploratory climate risk workshops: Experiences from urban Africa. Climate Risk Management, 13(2016), 95-102.
Region/Country Specific Preparation
Once your placement has been determined you may consider the following to prepare you:
- Review the website of the RC/RC office hosting you.
- Read previous internship reports from interns that were in your country/region (available upon request from Erin).
- Review strategic plans for the region/country.
- Research and ask your advisors for location-specific information on: culture, politics, safety, the weather and climate information providers in the area, how the RC works in your region, what areas of work the Zone/Region/National Society you will work with is responsible for, what other agencies they currently partner with, what types of forecasts they use and the extent to which they use them.