Video & Blog Highlights
Video
- Qian Zhang presented the latest Science for Citizens seminar titled "Decadal-scale Changes in Sediment and Nutrient Delivery from Conowingo Reservoir to Chesapeake Bay: Statistical Evaluations of Reservoir Trapping using Long-Term Monitoring Data." A video recording is available on IAN's website and YouTube.
Blog
- The Basin Report Card Initiative goes to Monterrey, Mexico!
- Raising the Grade for the Upper Mississippi River Basin
- Science, communication, and story-telling for social change
New York Harbor: Resilience in the face of four centuries of development
A paper detailing the impacts of development on the New York Harbor ecosystem was published in the journal Regional Studies in Marine Science, as part of a "Special Issue for The World Harbour Project: Global harbours and ports: different locations, similar problems?" The article was co-authored by present and former IAN personnel and partners our NSF-STEM-C Billion Oyster project. The publication features the history and trajectory of similar environmental issues for global partner cities within the World Harbour Project.
IAN takes part in the 2nd International Marine Science Communication Conference (CommOCEAN) in Bruges, Belgium
On December 6th to 7th, Heath Kelsey and Vanessa Vargas attended CommOCEAN 2016 held at the Provincial Court in the heart of medieval Bruges. CommOCEAN has four major sessions- reaching out to the public, ways of optimizing impacts, use of social media and graphics, and future trends/new formats. Heath presented on the use of visual science in stakeholder engagement during the plenary session while Vanessa talked about ecosystem health report cards in one of the parallel sessions. The conference was insightful and innovative, full of interactions and engagement.
Raise the Grade Action Agenda Released for Upper Mississippi River
The Action Agenda developed from the Upper Mississippi River Raise the Grade Conference was released on December 16. The October conference brought together over 200 participants from 95 organizations to develop solutions to challenges identified in the 2015 America's Watershed Initiative Card for the Mississippi River watershed, in which the Upper Mississippi River basin received a C grade. The Action Agenda identified seven objectives that address ecosystem resilience, nutrient reduction, monitoring and assessment, watershed planning and management, transportation infrastructure, recreation opportunities, and hydropower. For each objective, specific actions were identified that can be acted upon quickly to support multiple goals.
IAN facilitates a synthesis workshop for the Belmont Forum
Bill Dennison, Heath Kelsey and Vanessa Vargas joined up with Future Earth Coasts to facilitate a Belmont Forum workshop in San Francisco, CA associated with the annual American Geophysical Union conference. Representatives from eleven projects on coastal vulnerability and freshwater security shared their project findings and worked together to synthesize results. The transdisciplinary and transnational projects worked with a diversity of stakeholders to tackle complex issues to address the 'Belmont Challenge' which is to deliver knowledge needed for action to avoid and adapt to detrimental environmental change. IAN will produce a synthesis newsletter from this workshop.