Boston, Mass. -- Too many cooks might sometimes spoil the broth, but Penn State researchers asked a large number of stakeholders for input to a regional climate assessment and found the suggestions invaluable in determining what was important in global climate discussions.
"We have approached stakeholders in two ways," says Dr. Patti Anderson, research associate in Penn State's Environmental Resources Research Institute and team member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment of Climate Change Impacts.
"One way was to ask specific constituents to fill out surveys on perceived risk from potential global change."
The team also put together an advisory board of about 95 people representing industry, the environmental movement, the nonprofit sector, government and research organizations. The committee met initially in a planning phase and has met since to make suggestions on the topics they deem important, on the draft assessment, and on ways to distribute information about its results.
"One effect the MARA advisory committee had on how we proceeded with the research was the emphasis on human health," Anderson told attendees today (June 4) at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Society in Boston. "We initially thought it would be only a minor component."
MARA is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The project's goal is to assess the effects of climate change on different sectors in the region. Beside Anderson, the co-authors of the paper are Ann Fisher, senior scientist and professor, agricultural economics and principal investigator; Robert O'Connor, associate professor of political science; Richard Bord, associate professor of sociology; James Shortle, professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology; David DeWalle, professor of forest hydrology; and Brent Yarnal, professor of geography.
The two groups asked to complete surveys were forest managers and water system managers. The researchers asked the forest managers about the effects of extreme weather events, the problems these events caused and the costs of coping with extreme weather. This group saw high winds, flooding, heavy snow and ice as detrimental to their management efforts, which are aimed at producing timber for sale, watershed protection and aesthetics. They did not perceive temperatures as important. Forest managers view things on a long scale with trees taking 30 or more years to mature.
The researchers asked water system managers what they perceived as risks and the type of long term planning they did for water management. Their responses differed from the forest managers in that they saw electrical storms and drought as important, but they also viewed high winds a major problem as did forest managers.
"Large water systems had more weather-related problems than small ones, possibly because the large systems are more complex," says Anderson. "Initially we thought small water systems with fewer resources would have more problems."
According to the researchers, water managers base their decisions on past experience and, at this point, are not influenced much by information on climate change. Few water managers plan further than five years into the future.
The Mid-Atlantic Region includes Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia, northeastern North Carolina, southern and western New Jersey, and southcentral New York.
Another topic that concerns the advisory committee is the effect of climate change on insurance, both from the point of view of liability for the insurance companies and the ability of citizens to obtain insurance with a potential of increased extreme weather events.
The committee's review of the draft document worked well according to the researchers. The committee made it clear that an executive summary is mandatory and that more graphic explanations are needed. They corrected inadvertent errors and suggested references and new areas of investigation.
"When the committee had questions, we knew we needed to do a better job to make the report understandable," says Anderson.
EDITORS: Dr. Anderson is at 814-865-6363 or pja5@psu.edu by email.