Scientific diversity project update

This is the October 2017 newsletter from the Scientific diversity, scientific uncertainty and risk mitigation policy and planning project (RMPP), with updates for project end-users.

This project formally concludes in December 2017, however utilisation and research development activities are ongoing and will continue after this date.

End- user workshop and communication tools: A utilisation workshop ‘Making Science Social: Making sense of risk & uncertainty’ was held on 7 September 2017 in Sydney, immediately following the AFAC17 conference. The workshop was convened by Jess Weir, Liz Clarke, Tim Neale and Craig Ashhurst, and was facilitated by Liz and Craig. The workshop introduced participants to techniques and tools to help bring scientific and societal knowledge together, in order to tackle complexity and uncertainty in risk mitigation. Twenty people attended, including participants from each of the three case study areas (Barwon-Otway, Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley and Greater Darwin area), as well as key project end-users. Workshop participants were provided with summary research results from across the three case studies and a series of tools designed to enable reflective learning and sensemaking, and to enable sharing of experiences and information. A “Risk Thinking Toolbox” was presented, which included the following four items:

1.  A tool for navigating between science and practice: “The thinking wave”
2. A Brainstorming tool: concept mapping
3. A sensemaking tool: the wicked problems framework
4. A tool for surfacing tacit knowledge: a systems iceberg

All of the tools are designed to enable stakeholders with different expertise and backgrounds to share knowledge and synthesize a diversity of risk mitigation expertise, viewpoints and experience. The research team is following up on the strong interest in these tools from industry participants. It was noted that the tools shared at the workshop were not a result of the RMPP project, but were developed previously by Craig Ashhurst and Liz Clarke. The tools were chosen to meet the needs identified by the research results.

Darwin engagement: A specific engagement trip to report-back and co-learn from RMPP results is planned to address the prohibitive travel costs of Darwin case study participants. Given the extended fire season, this is now planned for February-March 2018. Tim Neale and Jessica Weir are developing utilisation activities in partnership with Mark Gardener from Bushfires NT, and will also give industry and academic seminars.

Synthesis and guidelines: The synthesis brings together all RMPP results to summarise and address the utilisation needs of end-user partners. The synthesis will be presented in two forms – a journal article and a three-page summary with guidelines. The longer journal article has been drafted by Jess Weir and is being revised by co-authors Tim Neale and Liz Clarke. The completion of the synthesis is dependent on the finalisation of the Hawkesbury-Nepean case study results, which will be completed by December 2017 at the same time as the final project report. In this reporting period, elements of the synthesis have been presented on at the Adelaide Showcase, AFAC17, and elsewhere – see presentations and posters below.

Canadian case study: In August, Tim travelled to Canada and the United States to conduct and present research. This first involved a workshop with wildfire practitioners in Lac La Biche, Alberta, led by Professor Tara McGee and assisted by postdoctoral researcher Jenny Sherry. The research was funded by the Government of Alberta Wildfire Science and Technology Program, and employed a comparative methodology to offer insights into our Australian case studies. Tim also had the opportunity to interview several Albertan Fire Behaviour Analysts about their work. Subsequently, Tim attended the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) annual meeting in Boston – attended by over 1,800 anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists. Tim also took part in planning meetings for next year’s conference, which will be held in Sydney in September 2018.

Publications

• Weir, JK, Neale, T and L Clarke (2017) ‘Science is critical, but it is not everything: Our Findings’, conference proceedings paper, AFAC17, Sydney.
• Dovers, S, (2017) ‘Emergency Management and Policy: Research Impact and Utilisation’, conference proceedings paper, AFAC17, Sydney.
• Clarke, L, Weir, JK, Neale, T Cinque, and M Abood (2017) ‘Making sense of Hawkesbury-Nepean flood risk: Bringing science and society together’, conference proceedings paper, AFAC17, Sydney.
• Neale, T (submitted for peer review), A sea of Gamba: making and minimising environmental legibility in northern Australia, Science as Culture.

Workshop

• Weir, JK, Clarke, L, Neale, T and C Ashhurst (2017) ‘Making Science Social: Making sense of risk & uncertainty’, Practitioner Workshop, Sydney, 7 September 2017.

Presentations

• Weir, JK, ‘Influencing the policy and practice of disaster resilience’, panel, BNHCRC Showcase 2017: Research Driving Change, CRC, Adelaide, 4 July 2017.
• Neale, T (2017), Future Fire: Knowing and Making Pyrogeographic Risk, Social Studies of Science (4S) annual meeting, conference presentation, Boston, 2 September.
• Weir, JK, Neale, T and L Clarke ‘Science is critical, but it is not everything: Our Findings’, AFAC17, Sydney, 4 September 2017
• Dovers, S, ‘Emergency Management and Policy: Research Impact and Utilisation’, AFAC conference, Sydney, 5 September 2017
• Clarke, L, Cinque, P, Abood, M, Weir, JK and T Neale ‘Making sense of Hawkesbury-Nepean flood risk: Bringing science and society together’, AFAC17, Sydney, 6 September 2017.

What’s next? For the remainder of 2017, the team plans to submit the synthesis for peer review, start developing the summary and guidelines, finalise the case study results from the third case study, as well as plan the February/March Darwin trip.