NSF Award
2417627
This qualitative research seeks to understand why communities facing similar environmental change-related threats adapt in different ways. Comparing four coastal cities facing sea level rise – one pair of cases pursuing different adaptation options in California and another pair in Florida – the researcher questions how location-specific histories might explain differing responses and what role different state-level agency configurations play in shaping risk perceptions and the type of adaptation options available to local governments. In investigating influential factors on local adaptation decisions, this project illuminates how risk perceptions develop and the varied paths and obstacles local governments face when addressing environmental change threats, highlighting for decision makers and funding agencies the constraints, points of intervention, and notable community characteristics that influence local adaptation potential.<br/><br/>The researchers identify sites based on their environmental risk and demographic comparability, with pairings made from sites with opposing stances on whether managed retreat should be considered part of their adaptation portfolio. They collect data in three phases, incorporating ethnography and interviews, archival, and institutional analysis methods to understand risk frameworks and their effects on local adaptation decisions. First, ethnographic research at each site provides a sense of the locale and the community’s lived experience of environmental change and rising seas. Second, each site’s planning commission and city council agendas and observed recorded meetings are analyzed to outline key state-level agencies involved, establish a decision-making timeline, and identify state and local decision-makers for interviews. This is supplemented with an analysis of state policy documents. Finally, additional ethnographic research at each site allows for corroboration of the findings and access to difficult to reach stakeholders. The research offers a better understanding of what shapes risk perceptions and the adaptation options available at the local level, providing deeper insight on how people are dealing with spaces that are becoming uninhabitable.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
