Amber Pairis co-authored an article on Translational Ecology for the December 2017 Special Issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment from the Ecological Society of America.
Translational Ecology (TE) is an approach to an environmental problem in which ecologists, stakeholders and decision makers collaborate to develop research that not only address the ecological context but the sociological and political contexts as well.
Pairis shared a case study for her collaborative work through Climate Science Alliance and partner San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative for the Resilient Coastlines Project of Greater San Diego.
From WebPanel 1, Case Study 5:
“San Diego County is the second-most populous county in California, and the coastal cities in this region are heavily dependent on coastal access and recreation. The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative and the Climate Science Alliance – South Coast have been working together to pursue a multifaceted approach to building coastal resiliency. These organizations are uniting several sea-level-rise initiatives in the San Diego region into one regional strategy that will effectively protect coastal residents, natural resources, businesses, and infrastructure against climate-change impacts. The coastal resilience project focuses on filling existing gaps in knowledge that are barriers to developing and ultimately implementing coastal resilience strategies. Specifically, actions are strategically designed to: (1) coordinate the region’s fragmented sea-level-rise initiatives into a robust coastal resilience strategy; (2) fill key information gaps that are current barriers to local government action on coastal resilience, such as cost-benefit, legal, and living shoreline information; and (3) pairing these efforts with an innovative and consistent regional communications strategy that expands public understanding and engagement in coastal resilience planning and actions”
The entire special issue can be read here.
Read more about the case study here.
Read a Q&A about the issue here.