Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Environmental Variability Adaptation Projects

本博士论文研究改进项目分析了解决适应环境变化的项目的长期影响。这些项目的目标是帮助社区应对当前和未来环境变化的影响，保障生计和经济发展。然而，对其长期影响的评估却很少。本研究将政治生态学与适应影响研究相结合，探讨气候变化的长期影响。该研究将跨国规模的气候融资与国家适应治理和相关项目的地方成果联系起来，并将为适应项目的有效性提供重要见解。研究结果将通过研究出版物、向从适应项目投资中受益的当地社区的报告以及通过适应研究研究生课程的制定来传播。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目将为年轻学者提供关键支持，帮助他们发展自己的独立研究档案。本研究提出了以下问题：(1)在国家层面，设计和实施适应项目的组织如何定义和衡量这些行动的成功，并将经验教训转化为未来的项目？(2)在地方层面，国际资助的适应项目对受援国社区适应能力的持久影响是什么？(3)哪些替代评估方法可以为适应项目的长期结果提供额外的见解？为了回答这些问题，本项目采用了混合方法，整合了从适应文件的系统分析、对关键线人的半结构化访谈和参与者观察中获得的数据，建立了适应环境变化治理的制度性民族志。该项目还通过帮助理解评估适应项目长期的多维结果所需的方法和分析，推进了一种方法学。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research improvement project analyzes the long-term impacts of projects that address adaptation to environmental variability. The goal of these projects is to assist communities to respond to the impacts of current and future environmental variability, safeguarding livelihoods and economic development. However, there have been few evaluations done of their long-term impacts. This research integrates political ecology with adaptation impact studies to examine the long-term impacts. The research links the transnational scale of climate finance to national adaptation governance and local outcomes of related projects, and will provide critical insights into the efficacy of adaptation projects. Findings will be disseminated via research publications, reports to local communities that have benefited from investment in adaption projects, and via curriculum development for graduate studies in adaptation research. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide critical support to a young scholar as they develop their independent research profile. This research poses the following questions: (1) At the national level, how do the organizations designing and implementing adaptation projects define and measure the success of these actions and translate lessons to future projects? (2) At the local level, what are the enduring impacts of internationally funded adaptation projects on the adaptive capacity of recipient communities? and (3) What alternative evaluation methodologies can provide additional insight into the long-term outcomes of adaptation projects? To answer these questions, this project uses mixed methods, integrating data derived from a systematic analysis of adaptation documents, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and participant observation, to build an institutional ethnography of adaptation governance to environmental variability. The project also advances a methodology by contributing to understanding the methods and analysis necessary for assessing the multi-dimensional outcomes of adaptation projects over time.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.