Scoping and Design of Actionable Science: A case study of integrating urban climatology and land-use planning

OneNOAA Science Seminar Series

Title: Scoping and Design of Actionable Science: A case study of integrating urban climatology and land-use planning

Speaker: Mariana Fragomeni, PhD, Professor, University of Connecticut

 Sponsor: NOAA RESTORE Science Program and NOAA's National Ocean Service Science Seminar Series. Points of contact are Andrew.Lade@noaa.gov for content and Tracy.GIll@noaa.gov for webinar questions.

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 Abstract: Coastal communities in the southeastern US are vulnerable to prolonged heat exposure due to storm driven power outages. To effectively address this vulnerability, cities must develop heat response plans that reduce health risks associated with prolonged heat exposure. Actionableheat response plans require intensive collaboration between public health departments, emergency management agencies, planning agencies and climatologists, a process referred to as
co-production. This seminar details the collaborative effort undertaken by researchers, resource managers and decision makers to co-produce an actionable heat response plan for the city of Savannah, GA. First, we will discuss iterative steps taken during the scoping phase of the project including a rapid assessment process that gathered insiders’ perspectives of an issue through intensive teamwork and data triangulation. Next, we describe a heat response planning workshop where we used a geodesign framework, which allowed participants to visualize individual variables of heat vulnerability and how those variables interact with each other. Finally, we will present how workshop participants reconciled their different heat response priorities to collaboratively produce a heat response plan that included 15 actions, 10 policies, and 5 projects.

Bio: Dr. Mariana Fragomeni is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Connecticut. She holds a PhD in Integrative Conservation and Geography (2019)and a master’s degree in Environmental Planning and Design (2014) from the University of Georgia. She also holds a specialist degree in Sustainable Environmental Rehabilitation in Architecture and Urbanism from the Universidade de Brasilia (2011) and a B.S. in Architecture and Urbanism from the Universidade Federal da Bahia (2008), both in Brazil. Prior to becoming an academic, she was a practitioner working in the fields of energy efficiency,architecture, and landscape architecture. Dr. Fragomeni’s areas of expertise are urban planning and design, urban climatology, human bioclimatology, climate adaptation, and bioclimatic landscape architecture.

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(Mariana Fragomeni, PhD, Professor, University of Connecticut)