Aloha

March 2015

Aloha to our Pacific RISA collaborators, partners, stakeholders, and friends.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy belated 2015 and let you know about our research and outreach activities over the last year. The Year 4 Pacific RISA Newsletter is now available to download, while a few highlights are listed below. We are in the last year of our five year NOAA funded research grant, and recently received notice that the Pacific RISA was successful in securing funding for another five years of interdisciplinary and applied climate science and adaptation work in the Pacific Islands. The next phase of Pacific RISA will grow our existing projects and networks and start exciting new research with some new team members that we will introduce this fall.

Thank you for your interest!

News and Updates

The Pacific RISA has continued its interdisciplinary multi-stakeholder research and outreach work to support the understanding of and response to impacts of climate variability and change impacts in Pacific Island communities. During Year 4, the Pacific RISA program expanded its work throughout the Hawaiian archipelago and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands using the 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) as a springboard for diverse research and outreach activities. PIRCA workshops facilitated a knowledge exchange with many new stakeholder groups, including the Hawai‘i Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM), regarding the adaptive management of freshwater resources.

Networks and gaps of information flow about climate change throughout the region have been identified, allowing the regional collaborators to use network tools to build on existing linkages and to focus resources on areas that are underserved. Pacific RISA team members have contributed to workshops with water resource managers in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and American Sāmoa on resilience to drought and climate variability due to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. New work in American Sāmoa is laying the foundation for assessing the value of multiple legal and policy tools aimed at supporting climate adaptation efforts.

Climate adaptation policy research in American Sāmoa

East West Center project specialist Richard Wallsgrove is working closely in American Sāmoa to develop adaptive tools to manage freshwater resources. The exciting opportunity will involve an assessment of the country's water resources and also identify key patterns in climate variability that impact quality and quantity of vital freshwater resources.

Research students conducting stream sampling (Faga 'alu stream in American Sāmoa picture by Christopher Schuler)

Assessing drought and freshwater resources in the US affiliated Pacific Islands

The Pacific Regional Climate Information System (PaCIS) and the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (PI-CSC) working alongside the Pacific RISA team have started collaborative work with the Republic of the Marshall Islands to develop a Drought Dashboard, a collection and translation of key climatic indicator variables into freshwater management outcomes. This work represents the multidisciplinary nature and vision of Pacific RISA to enable resilient and and sustainable Pacific Island communities to use climate information to manage risks and support practical decision making about climate variability and change.

Participants at the Pacific islands climate services dialog (Majuro RMI, April 2014, picture by Duncan McIntosh)

Creating future climate and land use scenarios for Maui

The Pacific RISA research team in collaboration with over 100 state and country decision makers and the USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center (PI-WSC) are working together to estimate changes in groundwater recharge given future climate conditions on the Island of Maui, Hawai‘i. The insights from this research will be released in a series of papers this year.

Disaster and Climate Change preparedness in American Samoa and Maui; resources for communities released

Dr. Kati Corlew has recently released in print and electronic format handbooks for communities in Maui and American Sāmoa addressing climate and disaster experiences and preparedness. The resources focus on the experiences and lessons of Maui Island in Hawai‘i and communities in American Sāmoa with climate related hazards, and also document information about natural hazards and vulnerabilities to disaster which can help guide disaster and climate change preparedness in the future. The project field work was funded by the American Psychological Foundation Visionary Grant with support from Pacific RISA and the East West Center.

Please click to download.

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