Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New collaboration to research adaptation to climate change

South Bend Tribune via Notre Dame: … The question is not only how to slow or stop climate change, but how to adapt and live with the consequences of climate change—and that requires getting as complete a picture as possible by collecting research findings from experts around the world and allowing researchers to work together to solve climate change problems.

A Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of CyberInfrastructure enables a new University of Notre Dame interdisciplinary project, the Collaboratory for Adaptation to Climate Change, to do just that.

The project's initial function is to collect survey data on expert opinion about adaptation to climate change, climate data, ecological data, legal and regulatory data and to develop novel computational tools that help researchers and managers grapple with the effects of climate change. The collaboratory will make the data and tools available and make research results searchable, and also will provide a database of regulations and laws that pertain to climate change adaptation. These tools will enable anyone interested in climate change—most likely scientists and field practitioners like conservationists—to make decisions about climate change adaptation.

… [S]tudies typically look at how to slow climate change—but considering how and why to adapt is also crucial. That's the collaboratory's niche, she says, and it allows access to research in real time—getting and distributing data as it is gathered instead of waiting years before action is possible. Accessing experts' research and their adaptation conclusions means that people can make decisions based on comprehensive, scientifically significant information….

Jeremy Bentham's 1791 plan for the Panopticon, presented here without any Foucaultian backchat

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