NSF Award # 2420587

RETRACE

Resiliences to Climate Risks: Lessons from Arctic and Pacific Communities

Team members: Charlotte Heinzlef (Consortium Lead), Guanqing Chi (Partner PI), and Pascal Egli (Partner PI), Martina Calovi, Jeanne Gherardi Scao, Tomasz Opach, Jan Ketil Rød., Sabrina Scherzer, Jean-Paul Vanderlinden, Charlotte da Cunha, Damien Serre, Erika Gavenus

5
Continents being analyzed
10+
Long-term, active projects
200+
Publications

Understanding resilience in its diversity with communities in the Arctic and Pacific regions.

Communities in the Arctic and Pacific regions are looking for effective ways to build resilience to the multiple and elevated climate risks they are facing. The RETRACE project seeks to work with these communities to integrate local, intrinsic, and cultural resiliences into decision-support tools. This approach celebrates the richness and diversity of local experiences and cultural legacies in understanding and responding to climate risks.

This project represents a significant step forward in creating more inclusive, effective, and context-sensitive resilience strategies.

The RETRACE project is a multidisciplinary initiative aimed at enhancing the resilience of communities. Bringing narrative-based insights from Arctic and Pacific communities together with existing resilience assessment methods will foster a more comprehensive understanding of resilience and result in resilience strategies that are more understandable and accessible to both communities and policymakers.

The teams will develop transdisciplinary and convergent research approaches on cultural heritage and climate change, foster collaboration among the research community across several regions, and contribute to knowledge advances at the global level.

Members of the EDeN research group will be working in the Copper River region of Alaska, in partnership with the Copper River Native Association (CRNA) and its members.

Developing community-driven resilience strategies to climate risks.

A significant output of the project is the development of a spatial decision-support system, combining qualitative and quantitative data to aid decision-making. The RETRACE project will enable communities to identify and strengthen unique resilience levers, enhancing understanding and response to climate risks through the integration of traditional knowledge and scientific insights. 

RETRACE’s outcomes will offer a model for other vulnerable communities, providing a framework to understand and strengthen resilience in various settings.