Reduced flows and increased demand for Colorado River water represent a real and present danger in the West. To address the threat, water managers and modelers initiated a study to understand the system, consider options, and take action.

Infrastructures for energy, water, transport, information and communications services create the conditions for livability and economic development. They are the backbone of our society. Similar to our arteries and neural systems that sustain our human bodies, most people however take infrastructures for granted. That is, until they break down or service levels go down.

In many countries around the globe infrastructures are ageing. They require substantial investments to meet the challenges of increasing population, urbanization, resource scarcity, congestion, pollution, and so on. Infrastructures are vulnerable to extreme weather events, and therewith to climate change.
Technological innovations, such as new technologies to harvest renewable energy, are one part of the solution. The other part comes from infrastructure restructuring. Market design and regulation, for example, have a high impact on the functioning and performance of infrastructures.

“Changing policy isn’t the equivalent of changing culture. As you are working toward establishing a policy, it’s just as important to begin planning for how that policy is going to be implemented.” This segment provides background knowledge and terminology on OER policy. Plotkin and Allen first discuss what policy means and develop a tweet-sized summary of OER policy. Then, Allen further identifies the types of OER policies, illustrates how OER policies have been implemented at the federal level, and discusses the benefits of having OER policies at the governance level. Plotkin identifies another benefit of OER Policy in creating opportunities for collaboration between institutions who share similar policies. Afterward, they switch gears and discuss when/how people know it is time for a policy discussion to take place. Allen states that it is important to respect institutional differences and needs. They continue the conversation by addressing the relationship between OER policy ...

Part one in the series Paradise under Pressure/ Paradis under pres: https://paradis-under-pres.simplecast.com/

Plastic bottles are impossible to avoid when travelling for vacation to southern countries. In Zanzibar, thousands of plastic bottles are sailed in from the mainland every day. They float as waste everywhere on beaches, streets, and in between bushes, trees and tall grass.
In this episode, we will meet Aziza Biubwa of the State University of Zanzibar, a researcher in waste management, Justin Madho, who works for the waste company Zanrec and Sjani Müggenburg, director of Ozti East Africa - a company that has made furniture plastic screw cap.

Danish:
Plastikflasker er umulige at undgå, når du holder ferie i syden. På Zanzibar bliver tusindvis af plastikflasker hver dag sejlet ind fra fastlandet, men som affald flyder de overalt på strande, gader, og imellem buske, træer og højt græs.
I denne episode skal vi møde Aziza Biubwa fra State University of Zanzibar, som forsker i affaldshåndtering, Justin Madho, som arbejder for affaldsfirmaet Zanrec og Sjani Müggenburg, som er direktør for Ozti East Africa – et firma der har fundet ud af at lave møbler af plastikskruelåg.

For irrigated crops, knowing when and how much water to apply has long been a matter of experience and guesswork. In a changing climate, new technology can reduce this uncertainty, enabling farmers to make every drop of water count.

As the number of ice-free days in the seas surrounding Alaska increases over time, so do opportunities. Oil and gas companies are ramping up offshore exploration and drilling in the Arctic and the shipping industry is increasing traffic around and through the region. As a result, Arctic residents may have new opportunities for jobs and development across the region. There’s also a downside to the increased activity. Oil and gas extraction operations occasionally have accidents—events that can result in massive oil spills.

Changing conditions spur a utility in Washington, D.C., to consider and address its future climate vulnerabilitie

Coral reefs off the west coast of Maui are readily accessible and heavily used by visitors and locals alike. Managers needed a plan to boost the resilience of the reefs so they could continue providing critical habitat for marine species.

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is excited to be releasing a new report on faculty’s use in open educational resources.

This study was based on interviews with 60 faculty in Washington’s community and technical college system, and built upon a previous state-wide survey with 770 faculty.

Feel free to share this report widely.

Louisiana’s Highway 1 carries a significant fraction of the gas and oil that comes from the Gulf of Mexico to distribution points in the United States. Faced with rising seas and sinking land, would the cost of rebuilding the road be worth the investment it required?

As the threats of tsunami and sea level rise are joined by real and potential climate impacts, the Quinault community looks to move the lower village of Taholah to higher ground.

Ranchers are participating in a pilot project to improve carbon storage and reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. After quantifying their baseline emissions and carbon storage, they implement conservation practices that may let them tap into revenue from voluntary carbon markets.

After an extremely heavy rain destroyed almost 500 miles of roadway in Colorado, the state is redesigning some roadways—and the streams they follow—to make the roads more resilient to future floods.

Rising seas and coastal erosion are eating away at the barrier island on which the Alaska Native Village of Kivalina rests. Residents and others are making concerted efforts to move the community to safety.

Coastal erosion has repeatedly damaged bike paths and parking lots near Ventura, California. It took local groups with varying viewpoints more than a decade to agree upon a strategy, but the first phase of their solution is now complete.

After conducting an assessment that showed their building’s vulnerability to wind damage, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami looked for a way to improve safety for patients and staff.

This document is an evidence-based guide that outlines the practical and policy supports needed to enable K-12 school librarians to take on leadership roles around OER, and to support OER curation efforts by librarians and all educators.



This guide is based on a study led by ISKME (iskme.org) in collaboration with Florida State University's School of Information. The study is titled “Exploring OER Curation and the Role of School Librarians". ISKME designs guides and toolkits that help educators navigate and implement new teaching and learning practices. Grounded in research, our evidence-based guides and toolkits help articulate what actually works in real education settings—and are tailored to the unique professional learning needs of our clients and their stakeholders.



The study was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov), under grant number LG-86-17-0035-17. The findings and recommendations expressed in this document do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

A practical guide to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for post-secondary institutions.



The purpose of this inventory is to identify emerging practices in post-secondary settings across Canada that integrate the SDGs explicitly and to curate a selection of these into an Open Educational Resource (OER) toolkit and guide to the SDGs for Canadian colleges and institutes. Each of the practices submitted are grouped into categories by institutional department and a representative selection is included in the first version of the SDG Toolkit for Canadian Colleges and Institutes.

Puerto Rico's San Juan Bay Estuary faces multiple threats, including heavy use by urban populations and impacts of climate change. A workbook from the EPA's Climate Ready Estuaries program helped them catalog, prioritize, and address their climate risks.

As sea level rises, wetlands and marshes must move inland, or drown. The Sonoma Land Trust is using innovative strategies to restore and enhance marshlands and the ecosystems they support.