Doctoral Dissertation: Extreme Heat Governance for Rural Agricultural Communities

该项目将促进对极端高温事件反应的跨国差异的理解。它通过关注农村和农业社区的极端高温填补了研究空白。极端高温事件对公众健康、牲畜、农作物和经济都是一种风险。这项研究将探讨两种不同的方法来适应农村极端高温。虽然每个地方的农村社区都面临着类似的气候相关挑战，但农村土地所有者在环境和气候变化治理中所发挥的作用却存在着重大差异。这项研究将比较两个地方正在形成的极端热适应措施，以了解国家和州一级的政策如何与当地文化和价值观相互作用，以创造独特的方法。这项研究将导致建议和最佳实践的例子，将感兴趣的应急规划人员，决策者，地方政府和农村居民。研究采用了解释性和比较性的案例研究方法，侧重于两个区域。 将收集数据以回答以下研究问题：1）哪些因素正在塑造每个地区的极端热适应政策？2)地方知识和社会秩序如何影响在区域/国家范围内制定的气候适应方案的实施？3)地方行为者在制定应对高温等环境危害的战略及其执行方面可以发挥什么作用？他们作为社区领导人的更强参与如何加强这些解决方案？数据收集将涉及参与者对公开会议和听证会的观察、对公共记录和公开提供的材料/数据的分析以及访谈。将对三类不同的参与者进行访谈：监管者和决策者（如政策分析师、适应方案协调员、政府官员）、科学家和农业专业人员以及农村居民（如当地社区领导人、倡导者、公共会议的参与者）。这项调查的结果将通过揭示如何在具有当地特定挑战和优先事项的农村社区解决极端高温问题做出新的贡献。

This project will advance understanding of cross-national differences in responses to extreme heat events. It fills a research gap by focusing on extreme heat in rural and agricultural communities. Extreme heat events are a risk to public health, livestock, crops, and economies. This study will examine two different approaches to rural adaptation to extreme heat. While rural communities in each place face similar climate-related challenges, there are crucial differences in the roles that rural landowners take within environmental and climate change governance. This study will compare the extreme heat adaptation measures that are taking shape in two places to understand how national and state-level policies interact with local cultures and values to create distinctive approaches. The study will lead to recommendations and best practice examples that will be of interest to emergency planners, policy makers, local governments, and rural residents. The research uses an interpretative and comparative case study approach, focusing on two regions. Data will be gathered to answer the following research questions: 1) What factors are shaping the extreme heat adaptation policies in each region? 2) How do local knowledge and social orders shape the implementation of climate adaptation programs that are developed on the regional/national scale? 3) What role do and could local actors play in shaping the response strategies to environmental hazards, such as heat, and their implementation ? and how can their stronger involvement as community leaders strengthen these solutions? Data collection will involve participant observation of public meetings and hearings, an analysis of public records and publicly available materials/data, and interviews. Interviews will be conducted with three different categories of participants: regulators and policymakers (such as policy analysts, adaptation program coordinators, public officials), scientists and agricultural professionals, and rural residents (such as local community leaders, advocates, participants in public meetings). The results of this investigation will make a novel contribution by revealing how the problem of extreme heat is being addressed in rural communities that have locally-specific challenges and priorities.