Lisa Dilling

Position

Director of CIRES Western Water Assessment and Professor

Department

Environmental Studies Program

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1997

Contact

303-735-3678

3037351576

lisa.dilling@colorado.edu

Location

University of Colorado Boulder - Main Campus

Files

Dilling_CV_Nov 2020_public.pdf

Publications on the web

ORCID:

0000-0001-5061-0809

ResearcherID:

I-2889-2012

Google Scholar:

Google Scholar

Also on the web

Western Water Assessment

Research Interests

I am a Professor in the Environmental Studies program and Director of the Western Water Assessment program. My research focuses on understanding how society chooses to respond to environmental risks such as climate change. I use interdisciplinary, empirical methods to study questions such as how different views about the nature of risk affect the outcomes of decision processes. I am also interested in the tradeoffs involved in implementing new policies at the local scale and understanding how science can best support robust decision making in deeply uncertain contexts. My work has recently focused on drought and urban water management, climate change and public lands, geoengineering, and municipal policies regarding natural hazards. My research addresses the following questions that are important for societally-robust decision making for climate change:

What is needed to build equitable societal resilience in changing social and environmental conditions?
What are the drivers of adaptation to extreme weather and climate?
What is the role of knowledge in building adaptive capacity for climate?
How important are different elements of adaptive capacity, and how do they influence each other?
How do the dynamics of adaptation decision making play out on the ground and affect concepts of adaptation success and resilience?
How do we ensure energy decarbonization and climate change mitigation policies are effective, timely, and equitable?

View Publications

Page R; Dilling L. (Apr 2020). How experiences of climate extremes motivate adaptation among water managers. Climatic Change: an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change , 161(3), 499-516. 10.1007/s10584-020-02712-7
Daly, M; Dilling, L. (NOV 2019). The politics of "usable" knowledge: examining the development of climate services in Tanzania. CLIMATIC CHANGE, 157(1), 61-80. 10.1007/s10584-019-02510-w
Page, R; Dilling, L. (OCT 2019). The Critical Role of Communities of Practice and Peer Learning in Scaling Hydroclimatic Information Adoption. WEATHER CLIMATE AND SOCIETY, 11(4), 851-862. 10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0130.1
Dilling, L; Prakash, A; Zommers, Z; Ahmad, F; Singh, N; de Wit, S; Nalau, J; Daly, M; Bowman, K. (AUG 2019). Is adaptation success a flawed concept?. NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE, 9(8), 572-574. 10.1038/s41558-019-0539-0
Smith, R; Kasprzyk, J; Dilling, L. (JUL 2019). Testing the potential of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) with Colorado water managers. ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE, 117, 149-163. 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.03.011
Dilling, L., J. Berggren, J. Henderson, and D. Kenney. (March, 22, 2019 2019). Savior of rural landscapes or Solomon's choice? Colorado's experiment with alternative transfer methods for water ATMs. Water Security, 6. 10.1016/j.wasec.2019.100027
Dilling, L; Daly, ME; Kenney, DA; Klein, R; Miller, K; Ray, AJ; Travis, WR; Wilhelmi, O. (2019). Drought in urban water systems: Learning lessons for climate adaptive capacity. CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT, 23, 32-42. 10.1016/j.crm.2018.11.001
Averyt, K, JD Derner, L Dilling, R Guerrero, L Joyce, S McNeeley, E McNie, J Morisette, D Ojima, R OMalley, D Peck, AJ Ray, M Reeves and W Travis. (MAY 2018). Regional Climate Response Collaboratives Multi-Institutional Support for Climate Resilience. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, 99(5), 891-898. 10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0183.1
Dilling, L., R. Morss, and O. Wilhelmi. (2018). Learning to Expect Surprise: Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Beyond. Journal of Extreme Events, 4(3). 10.1142/S2345737617710014
Wibeck, V, A Hansson, J Anshelm, S Asayama, L Dilling, PM Feetham, R Hauser, A Ishii and M Sugiyama. (NOV 2017). Making sense of climate engineering: a focus group study of lay publics in four countries. CLIMATIC CHANGE, 145(2-Jan), 1-14. 10.1007/s10584-017-2067-0
Smith, R, J Kasprzyk and L Dilling. (SEP 2017). Participatory Framework for Assessment and Improvement of Tools (ParFAIT): Increasing the impact and relevance of water management decision support research. ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE, 95, 432-446. 10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.05.004
Dilling, L, E Pizzi, J Berggren, A Ravikumar and K Andersson. (NOV 2017). Drivers of adaptation: Responses to weather- and climate-related hazards in 60 local governments in the Intermountain Western US. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A, 49(11), 2628-2648. 10.1177/0308518X16688686
Dilling, L, KC Kelsey, DP Fernandez, YD Huang, JB Milford and JC Neff. (AUG 2016). Managing Carbon on Federal Public Lands: Opportunities and Challenges in Southwestern Colorado. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 58(2), 283-296. 10.1007/s00267-016-0714-2
Kirchhoff, CJ and L Dilling. (APR 2016). The role of US states in facilitating effective water governance under stress and change. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, 52(4), 2951-2964. 10.1002/2015WR018431
Dilling, L. (2015). Adaptation. RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON CLIMATE GOVERNANCE, 470-479.
Dilling, L, ME Daly, WR Travis, OV Wilhelmi and RA Klein. (JUL-AUG 2015). The dynamics of vulnerability: why adapting to climate variability will not always prepare us for climate change. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-CLIMATE CHANGE, 6(4), 413-425. 10.1002/wcc.341
Dilling, L and J Berggren. (APR 2015). What do stakeholders need to manage for climate change and variability? A document-based analysis from three mountain states in the Western USA. REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, 15(4), 657-667. 10.1007/s10113-014-0668-y
Dilling, L, K Lackstrom, B Haywood, K Dow, MC Lemos, J Berggren and S Kalafatis. (JAN 2015). What Stakeholder Needs Tell Us about Enabling Adaptive Capacity: The Intersection of Context and Information Provision across Regions in the United States. WEATHER CLIMATE AND SOCIETY, 7(1), 5-17. 10.1175/WCAS-D-14-00001.1
Archie, KM, L Dilling, JB Milford and FC Pampel. (15-Jan 2014). Unpacking the information barrier: Comparing perspectives on information as a barrier to climate change adaptation in the interior mountain West. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 133, 397-410. 10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.12.015
Dilling, L and R Hauser. (DEC 2013). Governing geoengineering research: why, when and how?. CLIMATIC CHANGE, 121(3), 553-565. 10.1007/s10584-013-0835-z
Dilling, L and E Failey. (FEB 2013). Managing carbon in a multiple use world: The implications of land-use decision context for carbon management. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS, 23(1), 291-300. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.10.012
Archie, KM, L Dilling, JB Milford and FC Pampel. (2012). Climate Change and Western Public Lands: a Survey of U.S. Federal Land Managers on the Status of Adaptation Efforts. ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY, 17(4). 10.5751/ES-05187-170420
McNeeley, SM, SA Tessendorf, H Lazrus, T Heikkila, IM Ferguson, JS Arrigo, SZ Attari, CM Cianfrani, L Dilling, JJ Gurdak, SK Kampf, D Kauneckis, CJ Kirchhoff, J Lee, BR Lintner, KM Mahoney, S Opitz-Stapleton, P Ray, AB South, AP Stubblefield and J Brugger. (APR 2012). Catalyzing Frontiers in Water-Climate-Society Research A View from Early Career Scientists and Junior Faculty. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, 93(4), 477-484. 10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00221.1
Ellenwood, MS, L Dilling and JB Milford. (MAY 2012). Managing United States Public Lands in Response to Climate Change: A View From the Ground Up. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 49(5), 954-967. 10.1007/s00267-012-9829-2
Morss, RE, OV Wilhelmi, GA Meehl and L Dilling. (2011). Improving Societal Outcomes of Extreme Weather in a Changing Climate: An Integrated Perspective. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES, VOL 36, 36, 1-25. 10.1146/annurev-environ-060809-100145
Dilling, L and MC Lemos. (MAY 2011). Creating usable science: Opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS, 21(2), 680-689. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.11.006
Hale, B and L Dilling. (MAR 2011). Geoengineering, Ocean Fertilization, and the Problem of Permissible Pollution. SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN VALUES, 36(2), 190-212. 10.1177/0162243910366150
Failey, EL and L Dilling. (APR-JUN 2010). Carbon stewardship: land management decisions and the potential for carbon sequestration in Colorado, USA. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 5(2). 10.1088/1748-9326/5/2/024005
Moser, SC and L Dilling. (2007). Toward the social tipping point: creating a climate for change. CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND FACILITATING SOCIAL CHANGE, 491-516. 10.1017/CBO9780511535871.035
Dilling, L and B Farhar. (2007). Making it easy: establishing energy efficiency and renewable energy as routine best practice. CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND FACILITATING SOCIAL CHANGE, 359-382. 10.1017/CBO9780511535871.026
Moser, SC and L Dilling. (2007). CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change Preface. CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND FACILITATING SOCIAL CHANGE, IX-XII. 10.1017/CBO9780511535871.001
Dilling, L and SC Moser. (2007). CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change Introduction. CREATING A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND FACILITATING SOCIAL CHANGE, 1-27. 10.1017/CBO9780511535871.003
Dilling, Liso. (May-07 2007). Toward carbon governance: Challenges across scales in the United States. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS, 7(2), 28-+. 10.1162/glep.2007.7.2.28
Dilling, L. (FEB 2007). Towards science in support of decision making: characterizing the supply of carbon cycle science. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY, 10(1), 48-61. 10.1016/j.envsci.2006.10.008
Miller, J. B. (2005). Book Review: ‘The Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Humans, Climate, and the Natural World’. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 87 (4).
Dilling, L and MA Brzezinski. (Sep-04 2004). Quantifying marine snow as a food choice for zooplankton using stable silicon isotope tracers. J. Plankton Res., 26(9), 1105-1114. 10.1093/plankt/fbh103
Moser, SC and L Dilling. (DEC 2004). Making climate hot - Communicating the urgency and challenge of global climate change. ENVIRONMENT, 46(10), 32-46. 10.1080/00139150409605820
Dilling, L, SC Doney, J Edmonds, KR Gurney, R Harriss, D Schimel, B Stephens and G Stokes. (2003). Therole of carbon cycle observations andknowledge in carbon management. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES, 28, 521-558. 10.1146/annurev.energy.28.011503.163443
Dilling, L and AL Alldredge. (Jul-00 2000). Fragmentation of marine snow by swimming macrozooplankton: A new process impacting carbon cycling in the sea. DEEP-SEA RESEARCH PART I-OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH PAPERS, 47(7), 1227-1245. 10.1016/S0967-0637(99)00105-3
Dilling, L, J Wilson, D Steinberg and A Alldredge. (1998 1998). Feeding by the euphausiid Euphausia pacifica and the copepod Calanus pacificus on marine snow. MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES, 170, 189-201. 10.3354/meps170189
DILLING, L and AL ALLDREDGE. (Jan-93 1993). CAN CHAETOGNATH FECAL PELLETS CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY TO CARBON FLUX. MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES, 92(2-Jan), 51-58. 10.3354/meps092051