The Geography Department Colloquium Series presents Dr. Derek Kauneckis on “The Adaptation Dilemma: Theory and Evidence on Climate Adaptation Decisions by U.S. Local Governments” on Friday, Oct. 14, from 3:05 to 4 p.m. in Clippinger 119.
Dr. Derek Kauneckis
Kauneckis is currently an associate professor of environmental studies at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, Ohio University. His research focuses on climate change adaptation and mitigation policy, resilience planning, local governance, property rights theory, and innovation policy. His work has been sponsored by Fulbright, National Science Foundation, National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Current research includes a national-level study of American local government climate policies, collaborative modeling of the institutional resiliency of river systems, and climate resiliency of Western Native American tribal lands.
Abstract: Why do local governments respond differently to the risk presented by climate change? The structure of policy making in the United States places local governments in a central role in the provisioning of many public goods and services. While climate change is ubiquitous and expected to impact a wide variety of services, it has very localized effects with highly differentiated risk. The presentation discusses current theory on local government policy making and the degree to which it offers insight into climate adaptation policy. It utilizes a recently collected dataset of 1,298 survey responses from local governments across the United States to illustrate the distribution of climate adaptation activities and how this can contribute to a better understanding of the local policy systems.
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