As progress towards a greater knowledge in sustainability science continues, the question of how better to integrate scientific progress with actual decisions made by practitioners remains paramount. This book aims to help close the gap between science and practice. Based on a two year collaborative project between Harvard and Clark Universities, the book takes as its focus the vulnerability and resilience of people around the world to the effects of environmental change, a mature area of research in which one might expect the gap between science and policy/practice to have been extensively bridged.

Integrating Science and Policy presents analysis of past studies, interviews conducted with the producers and users of scientific knowledge, and case studies performed by leading scholars across a spectrum of international settings and political systems. Crucially, the authors identify new directions and tools for closing the gap between science and policy across a range of situations and societies. The result is an illuminating collection of studies and analyses that suggest to researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-makers alike how best to ensure that high quality environmental research informs good environmental policy and practice.

Reviews

'This is a timely and important volume that offers a refreshingly new view of the interactions between scientists and policy makers. Conventional ideas are challenged and practical implications identified. Anyone interested in science, society and the environment will find it highly informative.' Dr Michael Howes, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy, Griffith University, Australia

Contents

Introduction: Characterizing the Science / Practice Gap Part 1: What do we Know Now? 1. Knowledge to Practice in the Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Resilience Literature: A Propositional Inventory 2. Integrating Science and Practice for the Mitigation of Natural Disasters: Barriers, Bridges, Propositions 3. Linking Vulner Adaptation, and Resilience Science to Practice: Pathways, Players, and Partnerships Part 2: Growing Political Urgency: Climate Change 4. From the U.S. Global Change Research Act (1990) to the Climate Change Science Program 5. Linking Climate Change Science with Policy in California 6. Russia's Climate Policy and the Kyoto Ratification Deal: Assessing the Science/Practice Interface 7. Urban and Social Vulnerability to Climate Variability in Tijuana, Mexico Part 3: The Science / Practice Gap: Global Perspectives 8. Food Insecurity in South Africa 9. Science and Vulnerability in Taiwan after the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake 10. Participatory Evaluation of Development Interventions in a Vulnerable African Environment 11. Science and Indigenous Knowledge in Resource Management in the Canadian Arctic 12. Reducing Vulnerability of Rural Communities in the Philippines: Modeling Social Links between Science and Policy 13. Addressing Vulnerability in the European Program for Food Aid and Food Securi...