This paper examines the dissemination of climate knowledge among Great Lakes decision-makers, especially focusing on cross-scale processes to tailor knowledge to better fit decision contexts. It employs both network analysis of those involved with documents and events intended to integrate climate change information into policy production or practice and qualitative research to understand how climate information flows among stakeholders in the water quality sector, a policy area of great importance in the Great Lakes region. It finds that the network consists of centralized regional-scale work surrounded by more dispersed specialized and local work that has developed over time. Our interviews reveal that overlaps between these scales produce more usable knowledge as potential users form their own specialized networks which operate as communities of practice that further tailor information to match particular application needs. We propose a model of this process that describes how the development of usable information works in a continuum, with each step furthering usability at the regional level. This model outlines the potential for knowledge networks and communities of practice to not only drive the use of information in particular decision contexts, but also provide a critical means to inform regional work and scale up the production of usable information about climate change. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Kalafatis, SE; Lemos, MC; Lo, YJ; Frank, KA
Increasing information usability for climate adaptation: The role of knowledge networks and communities of practice
Global Environmental Change-Human And Policy Dimensions