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The Natural Environment

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As scientists learn more about how the environment responds to human activity, it has become an area of increasing concern to the global community. RAND research has helped inform policies and direct further studies of environmental issues, from building efficiency and natural resource management to risk management and decisionmaking in the face of deep scientific and economic uncertainties.

Essay
Manipulating the Climate: What Are the Geopolitical Risks?
Geoengineering technologies that could block the sun's rays or siphon huge amounts of carbon from the air are not that far out of reach. Yet the international community has not established the kinds of guardrails you might expect for potentially world-changing technologies.
Dec 29, 2021
Content
Climate Resilience Center
The RAND Climate Resilience Center brings together trans-disciplinary research teams to build equitable, use-inspired climate resilience solutions.
Dec 18, 2014

Explore The Natural Environment

Report
An Initial Methodology for Evaluating Social Equity Performance in Disaster Mitigation Grants: The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program
The authors explore how the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program addresses the greatest natural hazard risks for mitigation (predisaster actions to reduce damage and ease recovery) while also integrating social equity factors.
Mar 22, 2023
Periodical
RAND Review: March-April 2023
The cover story describes how K-12 schools can build trust with students to increase threat reporting and strengthen school safety. The Q&A with Ashley Woo explores how restrictions on race- and gender-related topics are affecting teachers.
Mar 22, 2023
Essay
The Time to Prevent Shortfalls in Critical Materials Is Now
China's domination of the rare earth market is a matter of economic and national security concern. Existing plans to diversify the market and help the United States break its reliance on China likely don't go far enough or fast enough, and the clock is running.
Mar 20, 2023
Blog
Opioids in America, Silicon Valley Bank, Semiconductors: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on addressing America's illicit opioids problem, Silicon Valley Bank’s demise, Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance, and more.
Mar 17, 2023
Essay
An Early Warning System for Landslides Protects Sitka, Alaska
A 2015 landslide that killed three people in Sitka, Alaska, changed how residents looked at the steep hills all around them. The community worked with researchers to develop a warning system to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Mar 14, 2023
Journal Article
Collective Action by Community Groups: Solutions for Climate Change or Different Players in the Same Game?
This article investigates how community groups solve collective action problems though data gathered across 25 organizations in three sites—Sitka, Alaska, USA; Toco, Trinidad; and a global site of distributed citizen science organizations.
Mar 8, 2023
Report
Growing Toward a Low-Carbon Future: Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California's Westlands Water District
The authors assessed the greenhouse gas emissions of crop production in California's Westlands Water District and the trade-offs of policies aimed at decarbonization. They provide policy insights and recommendations to local and state decisionmakers.
Mar 1, 2023
Journal Article
Community-Level, Participatory Co-Design for Landslide Warning with Implications for Climate Services
This paper describes a community-level co-design process among academic, state, and federal scientists and the community of Sitka, Alaska to develop a novel landslide warning system for the small coastal town.
Mar 1, 2023
Journal Article
Capacities of Health Systems in Climate Migrant Receiving Communities: Insights in the US Gulf Coast
This report examines how health care delivery systems in receiving communities meet the needs of climate migrants in three case study sites in the US Gulf Coast.
Mar 1, 2023
Research Brief
Growing Toward a Low-Carbon Future: Policy Implications of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Their Trade-Offs in California's Westlands Water District
The authors assessed the greenhouse gas emissions of crop production in California's Westlands Water District and the trade-offs of policies aimed at decarbonization. They provide policy insights and recommendations to local and state decisionmakers.
Mar 1, 2023
Journal Article
International Humanitarian Narratives of Disasters, Crises and Indigeneity
Narratives are a means of making sense of disasters and crises. We identify and characterise narratives in humanitarian communications involving Indigenous Peoples by conducting a narrative analysis of humanitarian communications.
Feb 22, 2023
Journal Article
Social Vulnerability Shapes the Experiences of Climate Migrants Displaced by Hurricane Maria
The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of climate change related migrants. To do so we draw on focus group discussions with Puerto Ricans in South and Central Florida displaced by 2017 Hurricane Maria.
Feb 21, 2023
Blog
Earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Facial Recognition, Gun Violence: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, regulating the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, improving data collection on gun violence, and more.
Feb 17, 2023
Q&A
Earthquake in Turkey, Syria: Insights from RAND Researchers
Thousands of people have been confirmed dead in one the strongest earthquakes to hit Turkey and Syria in the past century. As search-and-rescue missions ended and recovery began, a handful of RAND researchers shared some of their initial thoughts.
Feb 14, 2023
Report
How Can DoD Compare Damage Costs Against Resilience Investment Costs for Climate-Driven Natural Hazards? Overview of an Analytic Approach, Its Advantages, and Its Limitations
This report assesses methods to compare the damage costs from climate change-related extreme weather events against the costs of investing in U.S. Department of Defense installation resilience.
Feb 2, 2023
Brochure
Implications of Climate Change for Department of the Air Force Missions and Operations
This compilation of climate research conducted within RAND Project AIR FORCE for the Department of the Air Force and more broadly across RAND offers insights about climate change and its implications for military operations and other contexts.
Feb 1, 2023
Journal Article
How Disasters Drive Media Channel Preferences: Tracing News Consumption Before, During, and After Hurricane Harvey
Understanding public media channel preferences can inform preparedness plans, response strategies, and long-term recovery.
Feb 1, 2023
Report
Greater Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Could Benefit U.S. and French Armies
The United States and France already share objectives in the Indo-Pacific. They could cooperate further to increase dialogue and information-sharing, engage in more combined partnering with other countries, and broaden their participation in exercises and training in the region.
Jan 25, 2023
Journal Article
Perceived Environmental Threats, Place Attachment, and Natural Resource Employment: Predicting Willingness to Move from a Threatened Coastline
This study examines the factors predicting willingness to move among residents of southeast Louisiana.
Jan 25, 2023
Brochure
Spotlight 2022–2023
The events of 2022 underscore the continuous nature of change and the constant need for policy informed by evidence. Spotlight 2022-2023 highlights selected projects that we undertook in our 30th anniversary year to address some of today's most pressing policy issues.
Jan 24, 2023

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Aimee E. Curtright

Senior Scientist

Aimee Curtright (she/her) is a senior scientist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research focuses on energy and infrastructure technology and policy and the social, environmental, and economic implications of new technology adoption. Her expertise…
Flannery Dolan

Associate Engineer

Flannery C. Dolan is an environmental engineer and hydrologist who focuses on understanding the interlinkages and feedbacks between the human and natural systems. Broadly, she is interested in long-term planning under uncertainty given multiple objectives in complex adaptive systems. Her current…

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