Community science最新文献

This project involved a multicultural team collaboratively co-creating a climate change module by and for Indigenous people. Embracing the framework of cultural humility, we recognized the bidirectional learning inherent in the project and its role in mitigating power dynamics within the team. This endeavor underscored the significance of transparency, effective communication, respect, reciprocity, trust building, and sensitivity to cultural contexts. Our findings emphasized the need for locally grounded programs that echo local traditional wisdom. We discovered that fostering an environment conducive to active listening and patience is pivotal in establishing a secure space. Our research affirms the equal validity and importance of both Western and Traditional knowledge (TK) systems. Our findings revealed that using a premade university-designed climate change curriculum wasn't effective for Indigenous participants in this study. Instead, we co-created a bottom-up menu-style approach that could be tailored to the instructor's preference and program capabilities.

The majority of households in high-income countries have access to safely managed drinking water, but a significant number do not trust or use their tap water. Much remains unknown about the perceptions and behaviors of millions of people who opt to not drink tap water that meets national guidelines. Given that tap water avoidance is associated with myriad adversities and bottled water generates enormous amounts of waste, information about the drivers of trust in tap water is critical. Therefore, we investigated drinking water perceptions and behaviors in 2020–21 in Evanston, Illinois, a mid-size city on Lake Michigan whose water quality meets or exceeds federal guidelines. In collaboration with a local environmental organization and a university, we conducted community-based participatory research that included surveys (n = 756) and in-depth interviews (n = 52) with a convenience sample of residents. Most (92.6%) respondents reported primarily consuming tap water. 81.2% of survey respondents (n = 749) thought their tap water was safer than or as safe as bottled water. Those who drank primarily bottled water (7.4%) were more likely to identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) or unhoused. BIPOC individuals had 3.4 times the odds of distrusting tap water than white respondents and men were 44% less likely to distrust tap water than women. Adverse experiences with water and low trust in government were also associated with lower trust in tap water safety. These findings suggest that outreach be targeted toward these groups to ensure widespread access to safe and trusted tap water.

Mangrove forests cover coastal areas of the Kutch district in Gujarat, western India. The inhabitants of this area, pastoralists known locally as Maldhari, have used these mangroves for their traditional livelihoods, including the rearing of Kharai camels, whose staple food consists of mangrove leaves, petioles, and associated saline vegetation. However, conservationists have accused these pastoralists of harming the mangrove forests through their grazing practices. Therefore, we analyzed Landsat data to understand how mangrove biomass has changed in this region over the past 33 years under grazing. The results revealed that changes in mangrove leaf biomass exhibited a sinusoidal seasonal trend, with a peak in December, and ongoing growth after the end of the rainy season. However, mangrove leaf biomass increased continuously from 1988 to 2020, with a similar rate of increase before and after 2005, when access to mangrove forests was restricted by the Border Security Force and Forest Department of the region. These results suggest that mangroves have adapted well to the semi-arid climate and that grazing by Kharai camels has not reduced their leaf biomass over the last 33 years. The traditional usage of mangrove leaves by pastoralists has not led to a reduction in mangrove coverage. Our findings confirm the perceptions of local pastoralists, expressed in interviews. Thus, traditional mangrove use ars to promote the sustainable coexistence of mangroves, camels, and herders.

The Philadelphia Region is threatened by anthropogenic climate change, with frontline communities facing disproportionate adverse impacts. To be effective, regional plans for climate resilience need to respond to diverse stakeholder needs, with research and information gathering critical to governance and decision-making. The Climate Resilience Research Agenda (CRRA) is a co-produced preliminary list of research activities that, if undertaken, could help to make the Philadelphia region more resilient to climate change. The CRRA process engaged over 100 individuals from over 60 organizations and entities across the region, collaboratively producing key research topics across four working groups: 1. Regional Climate Change and Cascading Hazards, 2. Health and Environmental Vulnerability, 3. Built Environment and Infrastructure System Resilience, and Decarbonization/Electrification of the Energy Sector, and 4. Regional Climate Governance and Adaptive Management. Research topics spanned working groups, and connections between topics highlighted the interconnectedness of climate challenges facing the Philadelphia region. In future project phases, the planning team will iterate and improve the recommendations with feedback from the participants from this process to continue important conversations regarding climate resilience within the region.

Increasing extreme heat poses challenges to metropolitan areas, such as those areas already experiencing extreme heat in Arizona. Using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework, state and local health departments have looked to expand cooling center networks as one option to build heat resilience. We present a method to pick new locations for cooling centers based on demand and current coverage. Using two locations in Arizona, we highlight differences in workflows and how the resulting information can be incorporated into separate but parallel efforts to reduce heat impacts. We used the Network Analyst Location-Allocation tool in ArcGIS Pro to maximize coverage of cooling centers in each area, so that additional cooling centers are selected to reflect local needs. The input data and parameters of the workflow were co-produced with input from two county health departments and a cooling center working group to better address the unique challenges related to cooling center access. To facilitate the application of this approach to other regions seeking to address heat health inequities, we provide a detailed protocol and a discussion of alternative selections.

This paper assesses how the concepts of social vulnerability and equity are discursively constructed in co-production research settings with a co-created decision support tool. The data was collected during workshops (32 communities represented) and interviews (24 communities represented) with stormwater managers and stakeholders (SMS) working in small cities, counties/parishes, and villages and towns within 100 miles of the US Gulf Coast. Findings from participant observation of workshops show that SMS express similar viewpoints regarding indicators of social vulnerability to climate-related hazards, often defining vulnerable people as less physically mobile or as having few monetary resources. Individuals articulated “community” through a lens of homeownership and often described their relationship to residents as strained. Findings from interviews reveal divergent viewpoints on the imperative and rationale for integrating social vulnerability data into stormwater assessments and planning. Interviews also generated more critical reflection than was present in workshops regarding racial disparities in flood hazard exposure. A key insight from this article is that tools and team composition matter but there is nuance in the degree to which they matter considering a range of contextual factors. The article argues that co-production teams must plan for alternatives and different scenarios given the messiness of co-production in practice and that research is needed to reveal the conditions under which specific tools matter for equity in terms of both process and outcomes.

GeoTraductores is an collaborative initiative between Eos, Planeteando, andGeoLatinas that aims to provide Spanish-speaking communities access to current scientific findings. This goal is accomplished by translating science articles originally published in English on AGU's Eos.org, within their Science News magazine, into Spanish. This cross-organizational initiative has translated, edited, and published over 150 articles, breaking the language barrier for Spanish-speaking communities. Our experience since 2020 has allowed us to tailor an efficient co-production model, which starts with (a) the selection of articles of interest to translate, followed by (b) the translation, reviewing, and editing process by volunteers, and (c) the publication and social media dissemination of the translated article. The tangible impact of GeoTraductores is evident in the substantial surge of visitor traffic to the Eos website between 2020 and 2023, particularly from Latin American countries. Notably, increases exceeding 85% were observed in Colombia, Mexico, and Panama, with 20% or greater growth in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador, confirming the initiative's success in meeting a genuine need. This impact extends globally, with Spain experiencing a 40% increase in visitors. Our co-production model is possible thanks to the contribution of around 40 GeoTraductores, mainly women (85%), who are native Spanish speakers or bilingual (Spanish and English speaking). These early-career scientists, through their volunteer work, enhance their bilingual communication skills while breaking down language barriers in science communication. The Eos-Planeteando-GeoLatinas co-production model fosters science democratization for Latin America while promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in Earth Sciences, one translation at a time.

Environmental justice research driven by academics and policymakers often overlooks the valuable insights and leadership of the communities most impacted by environmental hazards. When institution-led research approaches are employed, inadequate community ownership and limited institutional accountability hinder the effectiveness of environmental public health interventions. In contrast, a community-owned and -managed approach to environmental justice research can guide community members in developing evidence-based interventions. This paper outlines a community-led environmental health assessment survey (sample = 100) and resulting community actions over 6 years (2017–2023) in a Northern California farmworker community with a perceived high prevalence of cancer and exposure to environmental hazards in households, neighborhoods, and job sites. Local resident experts in Knights Landing, CA, documented community risk factors and exposures in collaboration with interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate student-researchers. The survey instrument focused on environmental hazards identified by local resident experts including vehicular and agricultural pollution, occupational pesticide contact, and sun exposure. Survey findings highlighted the need for targeted interventions to reduce environmental health risks, such as academic outreach programs, county investments in public services, and community-led mutual aid initiatives. Despite academic reservations about our non-random sampling method and data collection by local resident experts, our project sparked substantial actions and investments with minimal personnel and financial resources. Local leaders working with student-researchers developed more effective environmental public health interventions through a community-owned and -managed approach that went beyond the efforts of local regulatory and research institutions.

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is known to have adverse health effects and is a growing concern in urban areas. Spatial and temporal variability is difficult to assess with the few air quality stations typically available in cities. As an alternative, tree bark acts as a passive captor on which PM is deposited. Magnetic susceptibility measurements can be used as a proxy indicator to estimate pollution from vehicle sources. We present the citizen science project called Ecorc’Air, in which volunteers collect plane tree bark samples, mainly in Paris, which are then sent to laboratories and used for various measurements. The project has developed since 2016, leading to the production of annual maps that identify variations in magnetic particle concentrations. The correlation between magnetic susceptibility and metal content has been verified using multi elemental analysis. Thanks to these numerous samples, we were able to identify areas with consistently high susceptibility values over time. We also quantified the decrease in susceptibility values with the distance between the tree and the road, as well as the shielding effect of parked cars on pedestrians. We showed trends in susceptibility variations over time along a specific well-sampled road, suggesting that this type of sampling and measurement could be used to quantify variations in metallic pollution at a local scale. Finally, through interviews, we found that there is a growing interest and participation of city dwellers, especially those involved in local associations, to act in favor of environmental research, as well as of municipalities to offer support.

Water utility crews, including those who perform system maintenance and operations at drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities, are experiencing the impacts of changing rainfall characteristics first-hand. These frontline crews have relevant, experiential knowledge about changing climate-related risks and adaptation needs that, to date, are not included in utilities' strategic climate planning or implementation efforts, resulting in critical knowledge systems and action gaps. In this co-production case study with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), a municipal public water utility in Washington State, we use surveys and interviews to document barriers and opportunities for frontline crew engagement to enhance SPU's climate adaptation strategies to extreme rainfall. We find that 66% of crew workers perceive changes to rainfall intensity over the past decade and 59% report responding more to rainfall-related issues. These frontline crews are coping with changes in extreme precipitation by increasing preventative maintenance, working overtime during major storm events, and doing more pre-storm planning and preparation. Crews identified several aspects limiting their ability to respond to and prepare for extreme rainfall. To enhance their adaptive capacity, crews documented needs for infrastructure improvement, workforce facilities improvement, increased access to appropriate personal protective equipment, improved communication and coordination across the utility, and enhanced workforce capacity, including increased staff numbers. Findings suggest that for more effective, equitable, and responsive climate adaptation, water utilities should explicitly solicit and include crews' knowledge and lived experiences in adaptation planning while prioritizing strategies that enhance frontline crews' capacity and working conditions as a form of reciprocal action.