Set the foundation for building adaptive capacities by facilitating the creation of multidisciplinary networks of players, access to knowledge and resources, through the engagement of citizens and the government in climate actions.
To form a regional knowledge-action network of researchers and stakeholders that can evaluate needs, provide technical-scientific expertise, facilitate communication, and build cross-regional connections and capacity in climate adaptation from the community micro-level, to territorial meso-level, and macro-level of regional networks.
Communities and local decision makers regularly deal with multiple complex hazards, such as flooding, extreme temperatures, water shortages, wildfires, and extreme weather events. They rely on regional RISA teams to better understand, plan for, and respond to these events, which directly impact the health, housing, safety, business development, and wealth of their communities. RISA teams work in regions across the United States to address local needs by providing relevant scientific expertise and resources. These teams partner with multiple private and public sector organizations across their regions including local government agencies such as emergency management departments, utilities, ports, small and medium-sized businesses, rural town and city planners, regional councils of government, among others. Read more about the RISA teams and the impact of their work.
(Co-leads: Dr. Tischa Muñoz-Erickson, USDA Forest Service; Dr. Pablo Méndez-Lázaro, UPR-Medical Sciences Campus)
Integrated and collaborative approaches to adaptation planning, implementation, and building community resilience require a baseline understanding of existing governance capacities. This WG will be responsible for mapping and analyzing the multiple levels of adaptation governance and decision-making from community to territory and federal levels.
(Co-leads: Dr. Gregory Guannel, University of Virgin Islands; Dr. Seth Tuler, Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
We propose to translate existing knowledge, create new knowledge and/or identify outstanding research questions to clearly understand and communicate the existing climate threats to communities (as identified earlier), and how climate change will amplify these threats.
(Co-Leads: Dr. Mimi Sheller, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Dr. Kim Waddell, University of Virgin Islands)
Following co-production best practices (Cook et al., 2021, Muñoz-Erickson et al., 2017) we will bring together different actors and knowledge systems to collaborate in prioritizing strategies that build system resilience and adaptive capacity as well as normative pathways that define desirable outcomes for transformation.
(Co-leads: Dr. Mónica Sánchez Sepúlveda, UPR-Medical Sciences Campus; Erika I. Escabi Wojna, UPR-Medical Sciences Campus)
The CCAN Students Working Group connects graduate and undergraduate students across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and partner institutions to advance research, collaboration, and community engagement on climate and extreme weather adaptation. The group provides a space for mentorship, professional development, and interdisciplinary exchange, empowering the next generation of scientists and practitioners to co-produce solutions that strengthen resilience in island communities.
(Co-leads: Dr. Frank Muller Karger, University of South Florida; Dra. Digna Rueda Roa, University of South Florida)
The Extreme Heat Working Group serves as an internal coordination space for CCAN members advancing research, data integration, and collaborative actions related to extreme heat across the network. The group aligns institutional efforts, shares progress on ongoing projects, and identifies opportunities for joint initiatives that strengthen CCAN’s collective impact in addressing heat-related risks in the Caribbean region.
Our team is a multidisciplinary one composed of researchers and students representing 12 academic institutions located in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Arizona, and Florida, aiming to address issues related to climate change in PR and USVI. We are improving and expanding partnerships through the development and engagement of stakeholders in the region.
We are a multidisciplinary team of universities, agencies, and non-governmental organizations based
out of the Caribbean region seeking to address climate change issues by providing technical scientific knowledge, evaluating needs and co-producing climate adaptation capacities, strategies and actions that build on collectively produced insights and realistic locally grounded scenarios. We are enhancing and expanding partnerships through the development and convening of
stakeholders in Puerto Rico and USVI.
