SEI Oxford in a Nutshell

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1 SEI Oxford in a Nutshell Florence House, 29 Grove Street, Oxford, OX2 7JT, UK Shared values SEI Oxford s unique identity is based on a group of people who are committed to each other and the innovative work we do together. We greatly value: the open, collaborative and inclusive way we work the combination of skills, expertise and personal qualities that each individual brings to the group the focus we place on building healthy, productive and supportive partnerships across the SEI and beyond the creativity and innovation that is actively encouraged and invested in the agility of the group to respond to emerging needs and opportunities the flexibility we are afforded as individuals based on mutual trust and responsibility the cultural diversity of our highly motivated international team Brief introduction The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is an independent international research institute engaged in supporting policy and practice that addresses environment and development concerns at local, national, regional and global levels. SEI Oxford, one of 7 SEI centres globally, has specific expertise and experience working on vulnerability assessment, adaptive planning and risk governance within the fields of climate change, water and food security, agriculture, ecosystems management, migration and the synergies between adaptation and mitigation. SEI Oxford has a reputation for working at the interface between the natural and social sciences, undertaking research and developing tools and methods of analysis to directly support the operational work of partner and donor organisations with an emphasis on the cocreation of knowledge, notably through the weadapt.org collaboration. In this briefing note we describe the expertise of SEI Oxford, present our network of partners, and introduce weadapt, a knowledge management platform on climate adaptation driven by our team.

2 Our Network Aliquam of Partners dolor. We work through extensive partnerships in order to draw on complementary expertise and make our contributions relevant and useful to the practices of others. SEI Oxford has expertise in: Climate Adaptation Decision Support Tools SEI Oxford has been pioneering the development of decision support tools for adaptation. The demand for tools to help screen and choose adaptation options is growing, and our work on the prototype Climate Adaptation Options explorer (ADx) is at the cutting edge and well-placed to address this need. The ADx brings together several different decision support methods, such as analytic hierarchy processing (AHP) in order to support decisions for climate change adaptation and vulnerability analysis using a robust decision-making approach. The incorporation of methods and metrics in the development of this approach with application, testing and validation in case studies enables a comprehensive assessment of the complex socioecological impacts on people s vulnerability and decision-making options within an adaptive management context. * Project application: Healthy Futures SEI Oxford has expertise in specialised areas of work within the 4 SEI research themes (continued) 2

3 SEI Oxford has been growing over 10 years, currently with 10 staff members and 10 associates working at the interface between the natural and social sciences to support adaptation to global environmental change SEI Oxford specialised areas of expertise Another tool that we are using in our work to support adaptation decision-making is Social Network Analysis (SNA). The SNA methodology focuses on network relationships especially those identified as pertaining to adaptive governance, such as: financial resources, implementation of policies, influence, information exchange, capacity building, knowledge production and learning, with a focus on issues of scale. This can involve many different actors at different scales from government ministries, adaptation planners, research organisations, universities, NGOs, CBOs, media to community members and resource users. Mediation, EcoADAPT, C3D+ We also use participatory knowledge elicitation tools (KnETs) to gather and analyse qualitative data in a formal more robust way when assessing vulnerability, multiple stresses and uncertainty in adapting to changes in socioecological landscapes. This is a mixed-method approach which supports traditional participatory fieldwork methods and can also provide input for agent based models. * Project application: COBAM Agent-based models (ABM) use a bottom-up approach whereby phenomena, such as new types of vulnerability, may emerge as a result of the micro-level interactions between agents. By distinguishing between agents with respect to behavioural characteristics and system-related attributes (e.g. wealth, landholding, family size, climate, economy etc.), we use ABM to research the ways in which certain individuals are more or less vulnerable to system risks and uncertainties compared to other individuals or organisations. COBAM Social-ecological adaptation and synergies with mitigation We use different methods to understand the interactions between social and ecological systems and how they react to multiple stresses. The findings are used to support adaptation processes that build the adaptive capacity of people and the ecosystems they are part of to future changes in the climate. We integrate various approaches to adaptation, including adaptive governance, complex adaptive systems, and ecosystem-based adaptation. We are also exploring strategies that can create synergies between climate adaptation and mitigation, working particularly in the context of forest landscapes management. COBAM, EcoADAPT Economics of climate change adaptation We work on several studies that assess the economics of climate adaptation using multiple lines of evidence and different aggregation levels to address uncertainty and build a comprehensive evidence-base for policy makers. Model-derived aggregations are cross-referenced with national and sectoral economics studies, and case studies of local experiences. * Project application: EC ClimateCost, AdaptCost Climate risk communication Effective adaptation planning requires communicating climate and climate change information in credible, timely and relevant ways that build capacity to address climate risks. We are developing and testing various methods and tools to support communication and stakeholder engagement processes aimed at bringing disparate perspectives into dialogue, collectively generating new knowledge and shared understandings as a basis for action. * Project application: C3D+ 3

4 Content in weadapt is currently concentrated around 12 initiatives: Multi-stressor Vulnerability Communicating and Using Climate Information Exploring Synergies between Adaptation and Mitigation Adaptation Decision Making Integrating Adaptation into National Development Planning Economics of Climate Adaptation Ecosystem-based Adaptation Forests and Climate Change Climate Adaptation Training Community Based Adaptation Small Islands and Climate Change Urban Adaptation to Climate Change weadapt: collaborating on climate adaptation SEI Oxford has been leading the development of the weadapt platform, an online space for collaborative learning on climate change adaptation through the sharing and integration of various types of data, information and experiences. The platform currently has over 1500 registered users from 700 organisations and 2000 case studies, training materials, tools, articles and guidance to support different aspects of climate adaptation design and implementation in both policy and practice. weadapt relies on partnerships and collaboration with many different organisations and networks to develop an active community of thinking, practice and reflection around various climate adaptation topics. Our vision is that weadapt will continue to grow as a dynamic resource for the climate adaptation community to explore and share lessons learned around the world, providing contextually relevant climate information, decisionsupport tools to facilitate the process of choosing adaptation options and research findings to underpin planning. By responding to user feedback, weadapt strives to be an easy-to-use interactive environment in which members contribute information based on their own experiences and engage with other individuals and organisations doing exciting work in this field. New in weadapt In an exciting collaboration between weadapt and the Climate Systems Analysis Group, at the University of Cape Town, we have been exploring innovative ways of combining access to climate adaptation projects with downscaled climate data and projections from multiple climate models. 4

5 Current and upcoming projects Mediation* Europe, develop a common platform for impacts, vulnerability and adaptation ClimateCost* Europe, assess the costs of climate change adaptation Climate Change Capacity Development (C3D+) Developing countries, build capacity for adaptation planning EcoADAPT* Latin America, support adaptive governance for ecosystem-based adaptation in model forests EMBRACE* Europe, build resilience against extreme events Healthy Futures* East Africa, asses impact of climate change on human health Impact2C* Europe, assess the economic costs of climate impacts in a 2 o C warmer world IDRC/DFID FliCCCR South Africa, investigate the potential for collaborative governance in managing urban risks associated with flooding and sea level rise Sida Adaptation Novel Learning Approaches SE Asia, design and test a learning model to support local climate adaptation planning in highly vulnerable small island communities Dr Ruth Butterfield SEI Oxford Director ruth.butterfield@sei-international.org Skills in SEI Oxford ESPA WD-NACE Bangladesh and Kenya, develop a conceptual framework to support ecosystem management for poverty alleviation AfDB COBAM ml Congo Basin, assess synergies and conflicts between adaptation and mitigation in the Congo forests * EU 7th Framework Programme Project Agent-based modelling Participatory knowledge elicitation Socio-institutional network analysis Contextualized climate information analysis Dynamic vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning Communication and knowledge management Adaptation training and technical support Economic assessment of climate adaptation Robust decision making modelling Learn more about us at: Climate-smart agriculture Social-ecological systems modelling Mixed methods for data collection and analysis 5