Education and Outreach Colloquium, Atlas Team

Event Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Location: Bldg 33, Room H114
Time: 12:00 PM

Files: Click here for files associated with this entry

Mapping global climate change impacts and adaptation hotspots
The global community of policymakers, scientists, and citizens are faced with complex tradeoffs when choosing the most appropriate adaptation activities to address climate change in their areas and communities. Successfully prioritizing, implementing, tracking, and evaluating adaptation activities requires extraordinary new ways of coordinating and disseminating climate impact data to understand: What are the critical impacts we need to address? What are our options for responding? Have our efforts been effectively targeted over time? To address these challenges, our team is developing a web based mapping tool to assist decision makers, The aim of this tool is to become one of the primary sources for dissemination of the best-available science on human impacts of climate change- from projected effects on crop yields to changes of Ogood¹ days for tourism, and for tracking funding flows for adaptation activities- be it from foundations, private donors or multilateral organizations. Through the use of this tool, we hope that decision makers will have the ability to make informed and timely decisions on the use of their funding.

About Our Speakers
Shalini Vajjhala is a Fellow at Resources for the Future and the leader of the Atlas project. Her research focuses on the social impacts of large-scale development and environmental policies with critical public participation components. She has worked extensively on integrating and applying participatory mapping methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to diverse issues including climate change adaptation, environmental justice regulation, renewable energy siting, and carbon sequestration risk management. Shalini holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to joining RFF, she
worked as an architect, community organizer, and design instructor in Pittsburgh.

Nisha Krishnan is a research and technology assistant on the Atlas project and a former IT/web intern at RFF. She was instrumental in the development of RFF¹s new website, and has been near full-time on the Atlas team since September 2008. Nisha holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Macalester College and a M.A. in Applied Economics from the Johns Hopkins University.

Dan Spadaro, a Vice President in the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs, joins the RFF team through the Goldman Sachs Public Service Program, for one year beginning December 1, 2008 as the full-time Strategic Leader of Technology on the Atlas project. He is a technology professional with over 20 years experience supporting various industries and technologies, with the last 12 years primarily focused on the design, implementation, and support of systems technology infrastructure for financial applications at firms including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Dan holds a B.S. in Engineering Science with concentration in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and is currently completing an M.S. in Environmental Science focusing on climate change.

Janet Nackoney is an environmental conservation professional with 10 years of experience in natural resources research and GIS. As part of her own consulting company, Summit Geographics LLC, she has been working on adaptation research and the Atlas project as a part-time GIS Specialist at Resources for the Future for over one year. She specializes in spatial data analysis and mapping for a diverse array of natural resources, conservation, humanitarian, and international development applications. Janet holds an M.A. in Geography from the University of Maryland.

File(s) associated with this entry:

The Global Adaptation Atlas - Presentation
(ppt file, 9.99 MB)

PowerPoint Presentation

Posted or updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Editor: Paul Przyborski

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