Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Lisa Dilling

Research Interests

Use of scientific knowledge in decision making; climate change science policy; carbon management and governance; human dimensions of the carbon cycle; scales in decision making and scientific research.

Current Research: The Weakest Link - The Uptake of Knowledge on Vulnerability Into Decision Making

As the dimensions and reality of climate change have become more evident in recent years, attention is now beginning to focus on the issue of adaptation. While much attention has been focused on estimating future impacts from climate change on various sectors and parts of the world (e.g., Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007), much remains to be understood about the barriers to successful adaptation. These barriers include lack of knowledge about what to do and lack of capacity (whether financial, institutional, or human) to act (Adger et al. 2007).

However, many may assume that given knowledge about how to reduce negative outcomes, and given sufficient societal capacity, society will take action to adapt to the risks of climate change. From existing research about the response to hazards, even without the prospect of climate change, we might have reason to doubt this assumption. As Mickey Glantz and colleagues wrote, “lessons learned” might more appropriately be called “lessons identified”—only until someone actually applies the knowledge to reduce the risks associated with future hazards do they actually become lessons truly learned (Glantz et al. 2009).

In an important review, White, Kates, and Burton wrote about where hazards scholarship stands on the “situation in which more is lost while more is known” (White et al. 2001). While the good news is that losses of life are decreasing, property damage is increasing in both developing and the developed countries. Losses of life, while declining, remain unacceptably high, given the number of preventable deaths (especially in developing countries).

With respect to the role of knowledge in improving outcomes in regards to hazards, White et al. (2001) briefly reviewed five potential explanations for why, in face of ever-growing knowledge about hazards and their natural and social causes, losses continue to mount. The possible explanations they offer include: 1) knowledge is still lacking; 2) knowledge is available but not used; 3) knowledge is used, but ineffectively or with unintended consequences; 4) there is a lag time between the effective use of relevant knowledge and improving the situation; and 5) all best efforts to use knowledge have occurred but background increases in vulnerability swamp any positive gains. White et al. conclude with a plea for more appraisal of the “actual results of applying the best available knowledge in the best possible way” and better integration of knowledge of hazards into the practice of sustainable development.

One of the key barriers to successful adaptation that must not be overlooked, therefore, is the uptake and use of knowledge about reducing vulnerability in decisionmaking processes. Otherwise, as Glantz has written, we reach the situation where “lessons have been identified, but not learned,” meaning that knowledge gained even as a result of disaster or tragedy, is not acted upon to improve future outcomes. This paper sets forth a theoretical framework to underpin case studies examining three related questions for adaptation: 1) Is lack of information a barrier for successful adaptation measures?, 2) What are the barriers to the successful uptake of information for adaptation in policy?, and 3) Are there limits to the use of information for improving outcomes?

Publications

Click here for a complete list of published works »

A broken California levee in 2004.