The UCCRN North American Hub was established in November 2016, at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, under the leadership of Dr. Franco Montalto.
Three core goals have been established to guide its activities. The first goal is to promote two-way dialogue between urban decision-makers across North America and UCCRN researchers. Hub researchers will provide knowledge regarding climate change impacts and the effectiveness of various adaptation and mitigation strategies to urban decision-makers, while urban decision-makers will help ensure that the Hub researchers are asking policy-relevant research questions with the potential to produce actionable results. The second goal is to consolidate and mainstream relevant domain knowledge, for example regarding information gaps, known opportunities and constraints to different adaptation and/or mitigation strategies and lessons learned from pilot projects and programs. The third and final goal involves networking and mobilizing activities, specifically by enhancing interactions among researchers, cities, students, and other existing networks.
Organizationally, the UCCRN North American Hub, in partnership with the UCCRN Secretariat in New York, will achieve these goals by developing a Research Project Database, an Interaction Zone, and an Urban Climate Resource Exchange.
The Research Project Database will be in the form of a searchable listing of applied research projects identified by the Hub Director and other Hub affiliates during interactions with urban decision-makers throughout North America. Students and researchers from North American Hub institutions will use the Database to identify projects that can be incorporated into master’s of science (MS) and doctoral theses, project-based learning opportunities in the classroom, independent study projects, or even sabbatical projects. The online portal would also include an upload option to facilitate the addition of new projects to the database remotely.
The Interaction Zone would also be an online portal including a searchable inventory of various climate action plans from North American cities. This would be publicly accessible and is also expected to build capacity for Hub stakeholders interested in rapidly surveying the state of the art in climate preparedness plans in North America. The Urban Climate Resource Exchange would include links to key international guidance documents, as well as links to other related networks.
For more information on the UCCRN North American Hub, please visit their website.
Contact
NA Hub Director, Franco Montalto, [email protected]
NA Hub Coordinator, Korin Tangtrakul, [email protected]