University of Idaho
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Graduate and undergraduate students are employed each semester by the Sustainability Office to collect data and analyze it to advance environmental initiatives on campus. In addition, the Sustainability Office funds one graduate assistantship for a Ph.D. student to conduct sustainability-related research. Some of this data is used concurrently for students in their academic research programs. Examples of this research includes course catalog audits for sustainability classes, faculty research audits related to sustainability, research on sustainability survey techniques, research on biodigester options for campus, etc.

In addition, the Student Sustainability Cooperative also employs and pays 4-6 undergraduate student workers to collect data, analyze it, and use it to augment sustainability programs on campus. For instance, recycling leads have helped put together surveys, track data, and analyze results for a Refill Reclaim water bottle program to determine the amount of plastic diverted from the landfill. Additionally, the campus projects lead ran focus groups to improve participation in a sustainability grant program. Her analysis and subsequent revamping of the program resulted in a tripling in the number of applicants.

Students participating in this research were majors in natural resources, English, environmental science, organizational sciences, and statistics. Other employees majored in business, communications, virtual technology, and design.

The Colleges of Science and Natural Resources, in conjunction with researchers Idaho State University and Boise State University, received a $20M NSF grant that is funding 8 years of FTE Masters students and 12 years of PhD students in a project titled "Idaho Community-engaged Resilience for Energy-Water Systems." The abstract is as follows: There is a national need to proactively address the impacts of climate, population, and technological change on energy and water (E-W) systems across key watersheds in the western U.S. This "Idaho Community-engaged Resilience for Energy-Water Systems" (I-CREWS) project will use Idaho's Snake River Basin watershed to address two questions: 1) What role do trade-offs and changes in E-W systems, including storage, efficiency, conservation, local knowledge, and governance dynamics, play in determining resilience strategies for climate-driven, population, and technological change? and (2) How does incorporating diverse ways of knowing, community engagement, and advanced modeling lead to more equitable and resilient E-W futures? The State of Idaho provides an excellent testbed for the project. This is due to the features of Idaho?s landscapes, which span a range of gradients (e.g., hydrologic, topographic, demographic, jurisdictional) and population densities (e.g., small rural towns and Native American communities to expanding urban areas). The results of the I-CREWS project will inform multisystemic resilience and E-W issues nationally. I-CREWS will be administered by the University of Idaho in collaboration with Boise State University, Idaho State University, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. The I-CREWS project will grow research capacity with partner Tribal nations through a new Tribal Nations Research Network (TNRN), which will be developed to recenter knowledge exchange between Tribes and Idaho universities, focusing on collaboration through the development of tribally-originated research.

The key research themes of I-CREWS are to: (1) characterize and evaluate E-W configurations for a continuum of resilience strategies; (2) model and represent E-W configurations and their resilience; and (3) develop alternative futures scenarios of E-W trajectories and their resilience to change. I-CREWS researchers will use socio-environmental-technological systems (SETS) typologies in their hypothesis that communities undergoing changes in their E-W systems can be characterized by SETS typologies at different scales to determine patterns of multisystemic resilience to climate-driven, demographic, and technological changes. I-CREWS researchers aim to determine whether the adoption of SETS interventions increases resilience and reduces vulnerability in E-W systems. The research will investigate the interaction of competing objectives (e.g., energy, water, resources, public use, local values) in a community-decision context. The I-CREWS project will engage partners across constituencies (scientists, land managers, policymakers, administrators, Tribal nations, and end users) in order to advance the integration of more comprehensive science with management and policy strategies for resilient stewardship and governance, thus providing locally-valued choices as well as capacity-building to achieve the project?s impacts. I-CREWS will support workforce development and student training through high-context, community-engaged courses and projects that are co-created with community members to address E-W systems issues.

In addition, the College of Science received another $2.5M NSF grant titled Where We Live: Local and Place Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Underserved Rural Communities. Over the lifetime of the award, the project will fund 8 years of PhD students at U of I. The abstract is as follows: Adaptation consists of a set of behaviors and activities that occur from individual to institutional scales. Such adaptation results in the ability to remain healthy, effective and prosperous, despite changes that occur in the biophysical environment. Adaptation is also predicated on accurate perception of change, a set of abilities embedded in human cognition. Perception has been extensively studied in the context of risk and acute climate events such as flooding and wildfire, but data show that perceiving risk does not lead to successful adaptation which is critical for everything from human health to national security. Current approaches of hazard, vulnerability and risk mapping are ineffective; they do not accelerate adaptation and data show that they may even drive maladaptive behaviors. Rural communities constitute nearly 84% of the United States (US) land area and are home to 14% of the population. These areas serve as critical sources of food, freshwater, habitat, and energy as well as supporting carbon sequestration, education, recreation, and tourism but have been effectively left out of climate dialogues. Moreover, they are models for settlements in other parts of the world. Despite the rapid progress of technologies that can facilitate adaptation to climate change, widespread actions remain elusive. The need to understand the gap between knowing and experiencing the effects of a rapidly changing earth system and the behaviors that successfully respond to them has never been greater. When perception varies significantly from real world dynamics, it refers to a large gap (or difference), which may be associated with maladaptive behavior. The project hypothesize that the size of this gap is a key measure that determines both adaptive capacity, i.e., the potential to take actions that minimize the negative effects of climate change and adaptation. This project's research team will use participatory socio-environmental systems mapping, engaging the residents of rural communities as well as advanced computational modeling to project futures under different scenarios of change and responses to it. This project will lead to precise understanding of the mechanisms between perceptions, cultures and adaptation which will enable both better planning by increasing the diversity of knowledge as well as lead to more successful implementation in areas and regions that are central to our Nation?s sustainability, security and thrivability.

The Confluence Lab launched in March of 2019 to incubate and implement creative interdisciplinary research projects that bring together scholars in the arts, humanities, and sciences, along with community members, to engage environmental issues in the state of Idaho. The Lab’s central premise is that the tools of the humanities and arts—especially those related to storytelling, representation, emotions and communication—are important complements to scientific knowledge and can help develop holistic approaches to these issues. Beginning with a series of working lunches and a two-person office in the IRIC building, the Lab has grown to include a 113-member listserv and an active group of faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and interns housed in one of IRIC’s lab spaces. In its first three years, the Confluence Lab brought in over $700,000 of external grant funding, in addition to internal funding from UI, in support of eight projects. The two largest focus on fire in the American West and are funded by a National Science Foundation-Advancing Informal STEM Learning grant, and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “Just Futures Initiative.” Both projects work with communities and educators to invite and gather personal stories of fire. The NSF-AISL project aims to enhance informal science learning with attention to narrative and emotion. The Mellon Foundation project is one in a suite of justice-oriented projects under the umbrella of the Just Futures Institute, anchored at the University of Oregon. Confluence Lab members are working with regional communities to create a Pacific Northwest Climate Justice Atlas, which aims to elevate, amplify, and learn from the experiences of underrepresented communities in the Pacific Northwest as we collaborate toward more socially and environmentally just ways of living with more wildfire.

While these signature projects focus on wildland fire in the West, other Confluence Lab projects range widely in form and content. Among these are original music and rephotography centered in the Idaho wilderness, social science research on climate change skepticism in Idaho and the region, and a digital mapping project combining scientific research and personal interviews about caribou extinction. On campus, the Lab partners with the CDIL, Contexture, and the Sustainability Center. Off campus, Lab members collaborate with Idaho public libraries and the NASA-Earth to Sky network to host conversations about climate change in local communities. All of the Lab’s projects investigate conceptual and communication barriers that underlie debates about issues that are especially relevant to rural communities, such as public land use, wildland fire and fire management, and the causes and effects of climate change.

The University of Idaho awarded the Confluence Lab’s co-founders an Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Efforts in the spring of 2021. The Lab continues to provide researchers a vital meeting place on campus in which to share work while building bridges with colleagues and communities across the Pacific Northwest and nationally.

The University of Idaho has integrated interdisciplinary work into its annual performance evaluation and tenure and promotion processes. Faculty-Staff Handbook (FSH) 1565, the university’s primary policy regarding faculty ranks and responsibilities, defines the term interdisciplinary as: “an activity that involves teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or field of research practice.” The policy then provides that interdisciplinary work may be considered in each of the primary faculty areas of responsibility (teaching and advising, scholarship and creative activity, outreach and engagement, and university service and leadership.

Pursuant to FSH 3050, Faculty Position Descriptions are directly tied to the areas of responsibility. Faculty participate in the drafting of position descriptions and are able to initiate revisions to reflect the work in which they are actually engaged. The annual performance evaluation process (FSH 3320) is tied to the areas of responsibility and the position description. The policy specifically provides for the participation of supervisors in interdisciplinary fields in which the faculty member is active.

Finally in the context of tenure and promotion, FSH 3520 (tenure) and 3560 (promotions) provide for the direct participation of colleagues, supervisors and peers in interdisciplinary fields in which the faculty member is active.

We provide research guides on a variety of topics that cover aspects of sustainability, including research in the environmental sciences and society/environment interface. We also explicitly maintain collection management policies to acquire or license journals, books, and other resources that cover sustainability-associated topics, with regular purchases annually. GIS software for the UI community is managed by the UI Library, including in support of students and faculty performing spatial analysis on sustainability-related topics. Librarians have taught information literacy sessions in support of sustainability research in at least 5 courses per semester, including some specifically on resources for performing life cycle assessments and studying carbon offset policies in local communities.

Library: Jeremy Kenyon, Interim Head General Library

Inter-, Trans- and Multi-Disciplinary Research: Elizabeth Barker Brandt, James E. Wilson Distinguished Professor and Policy Coordinator and Faculty Secretary

Confluence Lab: Jennifer Ladino, Faculty; English Department

https://www.uidaho.edu/president/university-working-groups/sustainability