SAGE BIG Policy Group

SAGE BIG – Policy Group

Tuesday afternoon meeting Summarizing the plan - Listen, plan, act - Take the time to understand and develop tools Brainstorming in two smaller groups - Networks in new England and the Caribbean - Decision-support – what are tools that people already use and how should SAGE get involved in this

Brainstorming decision support and scientific projects - Who are Users? o Integrating information – cross sectors, planners, disaster planners, demography, integrating across geographic spaces - Jamaica UDC does planning across the board and spend time trying to integrate, support and information are achieved by different groups – gathering information in different groups and then integrating - Clearinghouse for agencies – a place to know what each person is doing o Local in a sense, but within a national framework o Database of what tools are out there? Organizing categorizing, reducing overlap - What jumps out to me most, always trying to draw balance between development and protection, cost-benefit analysis, tools, data, competence, Jamaica is data-rich - Ecosystem services - Not a true appreciation of what ecosystems do, intrinsic value, natural resources valuation – EIA is including “natural resource valuation” in those assessments - Strategic environmental assessment – broader, regional level process but difficult to explain (national level) takes into consideration the entire plan and cumulative impact - EIA is mandatory depending on development, SEI is not o Including protective benefits of ecosystem services, no good valuation, incorporate it into decisions o Projects don’t start at the beginning, but pick up in the middle; data may exist but in government they don’t have the capacity to - PES – payment for ecosystem services much a part of policy discussions in Africa – a model whereby local people receive payment to protect ecosystem services; larger economic value for the nation - In Jamaican context, typically instead you get payment for loss of services o Thrust by forestry department (conservation easements) – conservation management units, an incentive to private landowners - CABI – European regional coordination in Caribbean – management of invasive species – regional invasive species plan - They have developed a regional expert database - Political ecology of interventions – who benefits and who loses ? o Ineffectual projects and ministries o Environment seen as secondary to development o A lot of where decisions do get made – technocratic and imposed o Montego Bay Marine Park a good example

- Goat Islands are an example of local advocacy and the environmental profession - How did you go about the process – comparisons with other sites, why is this information not coming through (transparency) - Best practices also called sound principles, and specific or comparative case studies

Brainstorming Networks Objectives: - Go deeper in gradients – science, policy, practice, rural to urban, natural to built infrastructure gradients, using SAGE as a network of networks, engaging ideas - Objective of networks- o Two separate discussions and not great logic connecting NE and Caribbean (clarify logic of network links) o Engage different networks, provide value added o Clear statement of how to support other networks o Finding boundary partners – constellation of people you work with and collaborate with and learn from and inform – different role for different networks - Multidisciplinary approach is important because they have small workforce of specialized , responsible people for projects, whoever puts the project together it can be translated; going more in that direction, multi-agency approach and multidisciplinary - Do examine what has happened in the region – contact persons and search to for how things were done - Challenges and opportunities for that type of workforce – forced to work outside area of expertise - Some is personality driven (key nodes) - Spatial infrastructure in Jamaica – affording data and updating GIS data – bringing experts together

What types of engagement might be right for different networks? - Projects and successes not shared: too closely tied to projects - Putting together tools or products, national networks - One thing that would help – tradition is documents produced for projects, when it comes to actual actions/successes within an agency, not documented, best approach to achieve X and Y o Outside of projects this is not documented - Overcoming this by involving research institutes and technical advisory role, integrate project outputs into more broad, escapes the project reports - Incorporate into teaching and learning programs, as well as broad - Trying to set up a site, open access to upload risk and hazard maps, idea is that any technical person can upload or access data; this data is kept updated, started on World Bank project, - CEDEMA – Caribbean disaster, setting up a node with Caribbean risk information system, one platform, one portal for accessing maps or reports, multi-territory – toothbrushes, everyone has one, nobody wants to share - Spatial infrastructure in Jamaica – affording data and updating GIS data – bringing experts together - Conferences - Sufficient representation of the interests of SAGE; for environmental agencies to share - Philippines – city federation for environmental protection on archipelago - Website, we have huge resource in the website, could be used very effectively to communicate with different networks Recap

Decision Support - Which users? What are they using? What decisions are they making? - Failure to communicate to public o What is public’s definition of resilience? - First understand the decision-making context and then see where SAGE can provide value-added, e.g. perhaps tools to help spread the information. Now, SAGE is in its “listening mode”, learning from decision-makers’ needs. - Ways of integrating info? sectoral info, but not across sector and geographic regions or context - Gathering/centralizing information takes lots of time o Central clearing house would help o Local data within context (national) - Database of tools out there and different methods of valuation o Cost benefit analysis (development v. protection) o Ecosystem services o Natural resources valuation o Balance clarity of explanation (CBA) with complete analysis (NRV) o Environmental Impact Assessments – discrete – project-renewal (?) o Strategic Environmental Assessment – broader regional/national o How to include stream and erosion protection? . Some academic data – need to figure out how to include in policies - Payment for E.S. (PES) – not in Jamaica as much o Loss of service payment - Forests – conservation segments/management incentives - Projects o CABI – regional coordination of projects (Caribbean org) . Management of invasive species . Regional invasive species strategy . Potential for coastal protection set of projects urban ecology - Political ecology of interventions o Benefits and losses of different interventions o Voice, empowerment, representation o Ineffectual environmental protection and ministers of the environment . Environmental marginal in use in a comparison to development o Technocratic decisions imposed vs. lots of participatory process elsewhere o Benefits transfer issues – transparency o Transdisciplinary approach including planning/development . Coastal geomorphology, anthropology . Comparative case studies . Best practices/sound principles - Failure to communicate to public about trade-offs and benefits - Valuation to support policy/decision-making (agencies, OMB, etc.) - Aesthetics, place, hard to do – but need full picture - Decision tree – to decide when it’s critical to include other values harder to measure (scenarios) - Tools o Baseline info – ecological lift of intervention societal benefits o Monitoring effectiveness (money, time) . Cost-effective ways of monitoring, share data, which things to monitor (Role of citizen science?) - Simple data for local planning/adaptation o Simple tool/model o 311 Data in NYC . Did structures hold? What did it look like post-flood? (citizen science role) - Products not effectiveness – not easy to use, specific focus and data o Customize to need - Definition of resilience – needs of the community - Where are people already going for information (for decision-support): multiple- dimensional CBA (“value”) that also accounts for cultural, and interactions between grey/green infrastructure, and simulates scenario outcomes. - Projects o Foresight scenarios – stakeholder engagement (thought experiment) with local, regional, national stakeholders . Logic trees o Database of resilience tools, metrics, and scientific information that is useful for community planners and that could inform valuation/monetary decisions. Also translating the information for stakeholders. Information disseminators should be locally trusted people. o Scenario – being resilient after an event (drought, flood, etc.) o 25-30 years out - Expenses – easier to fund this if people recognized how important - Do a better job of either having tools, methods, measurements and monetizing

Networks - Why would we engage with other networks not like SAGE? - New networks - Objectives o We all have different objectives in engaging with other networks o So would partners - Learn, collaborate, teach, work with - Network of networks

Most important use of $ as a resilience czar? - Alternative scenario process with communities - Extension people (translators) o Every community - Connecting federal programs (translating science) - Database of resilience tools (classified) o Metrics; indicators effectiveness, context evaluation of indicators o Resilience values to help with decisions - Framework for scenario building and evaluation of scenarios o Trade-offs/benefits o Students from different areas o Student-driven and multidisciplinary o Quantitative analysis - Database of scientific data translated for lay audience o iTree – US Forest Service - Adding metrics and indicators which help translate resilience into budgetary considerations o Beyond risk reduction - Integrating knowledge bases o Add local knowledge to technical and scientific knowledge o What values do communities place on the ecosystem, and link back to policy making o What processes are most effective for getting communities to engage - Convince stakeholders to be a part of the process o In Jamaica, people are at fatigue for giving input o Don’t see at local level o Trust – people they see on a regular basis, most inclined to receive information - Empowered community leader/trusted entity o “toothbrush problem” – no one wants to use others’ tools - Evaluation of indicators - Missing basic data – really understanding the effectiveness of hybrid solutions + co- benefits and what works best under what conditions o Army corps is doing this? o May not actually be funding research on hybrid research, definitely funding on green research solutions

How should we approach the next year?? - Identify top objectives around/across SAGE o Why we would engage with other networks? And how would we do that? o Organize current list based on type of partner/goal/theme - List of organizations – diagrammatic and sectorial - Reach out to networks and see what they are willing to share? - Early career workshop – for PhDs and postdocs, PE, training the trainers / communities - Developing pilot projects to bring together these issues and provide example solutions (like extension folks) - If we want a hub, will others participate? - Think about connections between regions and then figure out next steps - Demo projects (good stories) about green infrastructure o Steps of whole project as example to others - Options for risk reduction - Similarities? Where can regions learn from each other? o Students from different areas o Student-driven and multidisciplinary o Quantitative analysis Where can we go in the next two years? - Huge amount in but this is a premature question o Think about next steps – really need to synthesize what has happened - Defining and demonstrating green infrastructure projects, embedding into pilots and case studies - Synthesis around challenges that regions are having – understanding their options for risk reduction and resilience o Different infrastructure choices, allows us to narrow decisions - Identify across regions – how do you identify the problem, what are solutions to problem, which then policymakers and practitioners could refer to that

Friday Meeting - Add vulnerability index - In terms of getting stuff done o One with networks o One with decision-support, broadly defined - Identify some leads for both of these

Do we have specific actions to the list? It sounds like we are adding vulnerability index as well?

Network & Outreach Development - Two or three people from each region o One person thinking across and beyond – identifying networks and make suggestions as to how they map into the categories that David identified . Kim nominated, Sean - Working as convener and finding people who would be helpful to shape interactions - Think through how we think about interactions with networks and vetting with larger group what we think resonates - Nice way to think about how we go about collaborating - Who do we prioritize who we reach out to ? initial step is just figuring out what are roles and who do we prioritize first - Might be different roles that different people play in different situations Decision-support processes and tools - Engaging with various decision-makers/actors and listening to how they make decisions - Understand where decision-makers get their scientific information, as well as how SAGE could provide a value add, people and processes, translators, extensions, tools like digital coast o Move from understanding of processes and tools into what we develop as those processes and tools, where SAGE product could have utility - Scope out understanding of landscape into scientific information into decision-making - Melissa volunteers to lead this effort o We can bring in our staff our team to be involved o Betsy and a free master’s student or three o Ariana, Maya - Processes and tools to understand how science is currently used in decision-making processes as related to resilience - Identify opportunities where resilience research could have value-add in terms of supporting decision-making across gradients, governments, and how it could be sustained Case study refinement - Robert – case studies as point of focus – decision-support processes and tools and case studies cross over o Robert Ryan, Robert Pirani, John doing case studies collaboration - Infrastructure team thinking about engaging undergraduates in terms of doing the case studies - Case studies to define framework and do more case studies to confirm this - Repository of case studies on the website, people keep track of this information on website - Develop an internal website – make it really clear what resources and updates are available on the website – on a quarterly basis – regularly enough that it benefits the group between workshops - Ask questions and get answers about logistics - Webinars beforehand for Barbados - New people joining, region specific people - Little update on where we are – done beforehand – probably could have done this, shorten it beforehand so people knew - Depends on host and what they’re trying to get out of it – briefing and what we see, framework for what we present – some country or region specific information beforehand