Climate Complexity and Emergency Response

该奖项是根据美国国家科学基金会的热切资助机制颁发的，该机制支持探索性研究的早期概念资助。该项目由人类学家Adriana Petryna博士(宾夕法尼亚大学)指导，是对极端气候事件不断发展的科学理解与不断变化的应急响应模式之间联系的更大规模调查的第一步。最近的极端事件，如“超级风暴”桑迪和与干旱有关的“巨火”，标志着生态的突然转变，需要改进风险管理方法。第一线的应对人员知道，建立在渐进主义变革观点基础上的旧模式不再够用。但是，评估和实施突然政权更迭的新科学因科学差距、知识转移和公共政策接受等问题而变得复杂。研究人员将确定这些管理问题，以使不断发展的气候变化科学与其应急反应之间能够直接和及时地互动。Petryna将把这一初步阶段的重点放在“安全区”的概念上，即预先规划的区域，保护人们免受可预测的危险。安全区，无论是在飓风还是野火的背景下，都应该整合最好的基础科学研究和应用风险管理，但最近的事件挑战了划定安全区的传统智慧和规则。Petryna的主要数据收集工作将与蒙大拿州米苏拉市落基山站火灾科学实验室的工程师、实验火灾科学家、应急避难所设计师、消防员和调度员以及新泽西州沿海城镇的县和市政应急管理团队一起完成。在这些地点，她将使用人种学和观察法在实验室收集数据，科学家和工程师在实验室研究生态条件变化下物理现象的动力学；在现场环境中，紧急救援人员从事不断变化的安全和干预条件；以及紧急管理机构，在那里就干预的可行性做出决定。研究人员还将与政权更迭的研究人员进行磋商。这项研究的发现将绘制出不断演变的知识体系，这些知识体系将突然的生态变化、极端气候事件以及前线应急人员的接受情况联系起来。

This award is made under NSF's EAGER funding mechanism, which supports Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research. The project, directed by anthropologist Dr. Adriana Petryna (University of Pennsylvania), is the first step in a larger investigation of the links between evolving scientific understanding of extreme climatic events and changing modes of emergency response. Recent extreme events, such as "superstorm" Sandy and drought-linked "megafires," signal abrupt ecological shifts that call for revamped approaches to managing risk. Front-line responders know that the old models, grounded in gradualist views of change, no longer suffice. But assessing and implementing the new science of abrupt regime shifts is complicated by problems of science gaps, knowledge transfer, and public policy acceptance. The researcher will identify these management issues to enable a direct and timely interaction between the evolving science of abrupt climate change and its emergency response.Petryna will focus this preliminary phase on the notion of "safety zones," preplanned areas protecting populations from predictable hazards. Safety zones, be they in the context of a hurricane or a wildfire, are supposed to integrate the best of basic scientific research and applied risk management but recent events have challenged the traditional wisdom and rules for safety zone delineation. Petryna's primary data collection will be done with engineers, experimental fire scientists, emergency shelter designers, firefighters, and dispatchers at the Fire Sciences Laboratory of the Rocky Mountain Station in Missoula, Montana, and with county and municipal emergency management teams in New Jersey coastal towns. Across these sites, she will employ ethnographic and observational methodologies to collect data in laboratories, where scientists and engineers study the dynamics of physical phenomena under transformed ecological conditions; in field settings, where emergency workers engage in changing conditions of safety and intervention; and in emergency management agencies, where decisions about feasibility of intervention are made. The researcher will also confer with regime shift researchers. Findings from this research will map the evolving systems of knowledge that link abrupt ecological change, extreme climatic events, and take-up by frontline emergency personnel.