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Earth Sciences

Report

The Nature and Potential of Community Citizen Science

Community citizen science offers unique opportunities to engage the public in science and to enhance civic life. It is used for activities like monitoring ecosystem health and enhancing disaster preparedness. But there are challenges to translating citizen science research into action.

Jun 18, 2019
Tool

Tool

Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Spring 2019: Seasonal Precipitation Analysis

This web-based tool aims to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders on Spring 2019 climate, as well as historical and projected future climate trends. Analysis of seasonal precipitation data are shown.

Jun 12, 2019
Journal Article

Journal Article

Shift in Seasonal Climate Patterns Likely to Impact Residential Energy Consumption in the United States

This paper presents an ensemble of climate simulations and empirical relationships between weather and household energy consumption to provide detailed estimates for potential climate-driven changes in the United States residential energy demand.

Jun 4, 2019
Tool

Tool

Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook: Winter 2018-2019: Seasonal Precipitation Analysis

This web-based tool aims to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders on historical and projected future climate trends. Analysis of seasonal precipitation data are displayed via interactive maps.

Mar 25, 2019
Tool

Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook for 2018: Extreme Precipitation Analysis

This web-based tool aims to inform Chesapeake Bay Watershed policymakers, practitioners, and community leaders on historical and projected future climate trends. Analysis of seasonal and extreme precipitation data are displayed via interactive maps.

Nov 27, 2018
Commentary

Mitigating India's Climate-Change Misery

Despite years of dire forecasts, the international community has been unable to halt the steady climb in global temperatures, and it is the world's poorest who are paying the heaviest toll. As heat-related risks intensify, those living on the margins—in India and elsewhere—will need help to cope effectively.

Oct 11, 2018
Commentary

Staying Cool as the Globe Warms

Studies suggest that the heat of the future will exceed humans' capacity to cope. But taking advantage of smart technology, inexpensive traditional methods of cooling that require little energy use, and innovative energy-efficient technologies could provide a sustainable path forward in heat-challenged regions.

Apr 23, 2018
Report

Is Climate Restoration an Appropriate Policy Goal?

Climate restoration seeks to return atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to preindustrial levels within one to two generations. Is this a suitable goal for humanity's response to climate change?

Apr 6, 2018
Journal Article

The Not-So-Marginal Value of Weather Warning Systems

This paper uses conditional variation in the initial broadcast dates of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) transmitters to produce cross-sectional and fixed effects estimates of the causal impact of expanding the NWR transmitter network.

Jan 4, 2018
Commentary

How Hot Is Too Hot? Rising Temperatures and the Workplace

Climate change is here. Future extreme heat waves are a given and will likely grow in intensity, geographic reach, and duration. Plans must be made now to ensure survival of the poorest, to protect outdoor workers, and to adapt economic planning to what is increasingly becoming a hotter planet.

Nov 16, 2017
Research Brief

Research Brief

Mapping Vulnerability to Heat Waves in India

Using district-level data on demographic, social, economic, health, and environmental factors, RAND researchers created the first-ever tool for measuring and mapping India's population's vulnerability to heat waves: the Heat Vulnerability Index.

Sep 15, 2017
Commentary

When It Comes to Climate, Look for Vulnerabilities in Policy, Not Science

Federal policymakers have picked up on the concept of red teaming — actively seeking out one's own vulnerabilities. While red teaming may not make sense for climate science, it does offer great benefits when weighing climate policy options.

Aug 4, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Advancing Alternative Analysis: Integration of Decision Science

Incorporating decision science into alternatives analysis would help companies and regulators to select alternatives to environmentally harmful ingredients.

Aug 1, 2017
Commentary

Where Are India's Heat Hotspots?

Poverty, poor sanitation, a precarious water and electricity supply, and limited access to health care make India vulnerable to heat waves. Rural and urban districts could improve their preparedness by developing and targeting local adaptation strategies.

May 17, 2017
Commentary

Mining the Moon for Rocket Fuel to Get Us to Mars

Students from around the world participated in the 2017 Caltech Space Challenge. They proposed designs of what a lunar launch and supply station for deep space missions might look like, and how it would work.

May 16, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Heat Wave Vulnerability Mapping for India

Indexing relative variation in heat-related vulnerability across all of India can help planners, policy makers, and disaster mitigation experts target climate adaptation efforts.

Apr 4, 2017
Dissertation

Dissertation

Directed International Technological Change and Climate Policy: New Methods for Identifying Robust Policies Under Conditions of Deep Uncertainty

Explores new methods to the study of international technological change and climate policy providing useful insights that can be used for designing a robust architecture of international technological cooperation for climate change mitigation.

Mar 11, 2016
Journal Article

An Open Source Framework for Many-Objective Robust Decision Making

This study introduces a new open source software framework to support bottom-up environmental systems planning under deep uncertainty with a focus on many-objective robust decision making (MORDM), called OpenMORDM.

Nov 6, 2015
Commentary

Debris Poses Increased Threat to Exploration

Every satellite launch and maneuver is carefully coordinated because some orbits are strewn with the space-based equivalent of blown tires, abandoned vehicles, loose gravel and, of course, other traffic. Earth's orbit is littered with hundreds of thousands of debris objects.

May 16, 2014
Commentary

Weather Forecasts, and Our Trust in Them, Need to Improve

When scientists predict extreme weather that never materializes, lay people tend to wonder what went wrong. This is a natural tendency that is not tied to a failure of the science, but rather to differences in the way scientists and lay people view predictions about extreme events.

Oct 8, 2013

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RAND Topic:
Earth Sciences

Topic Synonyms:
Geochemistry;
Geosciences

Research conducted by

RAND Social and Economic Well-Being