Blog posts by Heath Kelsey
Participants at the Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index Workshop at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia

Developing an Index of Resilience to Climate Change Impacts to the Great Barrier Reef – Workshop 3, Townsville, Australia.

Heath Kelsey ·
23 March 2015
Environmental Report Cards | 

This is part two of a three part series of blog posts about developing a reef resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef at a workshop in Townsville in March 2015 … The Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index … As part of a joint project of UMCES and Charles Darwin University, Jane Thomas, Bill Dennison and I traveled to Townsville, Australia to continue the development of the Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index.

Read more

Participants at the Mackay report card design workshop, 24 February. credit: Simone Richards

Mackay Report Card Workshop – Mackay, Queensland Australia 24 February 2015.

Heath Kelsey ·
9 March 2015
Environmental Report Cards | 

As a follow-on from the Gladstone Harbor Report Card, which IAN helped design last year, I had the chance to help Queensland Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) develop a draft report card for the next region, in Mackay. I attended the workshop in Mackay on February 24, to facilitate the discussion about report cards, discuss issues related to report card development, and help sketch out the draft report card in a storyboard exercise.

Read more

The Elizabeth River Project’s Floating Classroom. Credit: Elizabeth River Project

Kick-starting Collective Impact in Five Easy Report Card Steps

Heath Kelsey ·
23 February 2015
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

This is the first of two posts about the application of report cards to enable a collective impact process. The collective impact model facilitates positive change … Collective Impact is a term used to refer to collaborative projects that create “needle-moving” changes to complex and intransigent problems. I ran across the term for the first time a few days ago, and it resonated strongly with me.

Read more

Map of Australia showing the major climate regions - the Northern Territory is the northern region in the middle of the map. Credit: http://www.metvis.com.au/gallery/index.html (location labels added)

Environmental Literacy for the tropical Northern Territory, Australia

Heath Kelsey ·
12 February 2015
Environmental Literacy | 

As part of our ongoing project with Charles Darwin University to synthesize the research on the flood plains of Kakadu National Park, we review the fundamentals of the environment and characteristics of the region, specifically the coastal tropical areas in the northern part of the territory. The Northern Territory is the third largest state or territory in the country with about 17.5% (1.3 million km2) of the land area.

Read more

Initial draft rendering of flood plain connectivity issues communication developed at the Griffith University meeting in September 2014.

Threats to traditional resources in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory Australia

Heath Kelsey ·
6 January 2015
Science Communication | Applying Science | 

In the spring of 2014, Charles Darwin University in Australia's Northern Territory signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that allows us to exchange staff for extended periods. The goal is to increase our shared capacity for synthesis and communication of river and coastal management science. To begin flexing the cooperative spirit of the MOU, I will be traveling to Darwin (with family in tow) this January 2015 for about 3+ months.

Read more

The South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC)

State of the South Atlantic Ecosystems kickoff workshop

Heath Kelsey ·
20 November 2014
Science Communication | 

Jane Hawkey, Caroline Donovan, and I had a fantastic visit to Raleigh, NC, where we are working with the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) develop a State of the South Atlantic Ecosystems Assessment. Over the last two years or so, the SALCC has been developing a set of indicators that reflect on conservation priorities for 11 ecosystems in the US South Atlantic region.

Read more

Kansas City skyline from Kaw Point, where the Kansas River terminates at the Missouri River in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. Photo from Wikipedia.

Water supply is a concern in report card planning for the Missouri River Basin

Heath Kelsey ·
4 September 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication |     1 comments

I traveled to Kansas City, Missouri August 26, 2014 to facilitate a workshop in the Missouri River Basin, as part of the Mississippi River Report Card project with America’s Watershed Initiative. This meeting, held at the Kansas City Airport Hilton, was a follow-up to the May 23 meeting we had in Rapid City, South Dakota, where we got a good start on conceptualizing issues and concerns in the basin.

Read more

Conceptualization shows that coastal wetlands are likely to be affected by their ability to migrate landward or grow upwards as sea levels rise, and will be protected by underwater grasses and oyster habitat, which reduce wave action and erosion during storms. Image from the Chesapeake Bay Report Card 2013

Climate Change and resilience create new challenges in tracking ecosystem health status

Heath Kelsey ·
26 August 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication |     1 comments

Understanding resilience to climate change effects is critical to the future of environmental assessment and reporting. Changing air and water temperature, precipitation patterns and storm frequencies, CO2 concentrations, and sea level rise will add significant pressure to the natural and engineered systems that provide us services. Understanding system resilience to these changes is important to developing relevant monitoring, assessment, and reporting frameworks.

Read more