Job Details

We are looking for a student to join the Ecosystem Services Program at the Nicholas Institute, supporting our work to develop metrics to monitor the effects of nature-based adaptation projects on community risk reduction and species/habitat climate adaptation.
Nature-based adaptation projects involve the protection, restoration, or management of natural or semi-natural ecosystems to help nature and people adapt to climate change. As governments, funders, and communities increasingly look to nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, it is essential to understand how effective these projects can be in providing the multiple benefits desired. This is particularly important when these projects are intended to reduce community risk; insufficient information about risk reduction is one of the most-cited reasons that nature-based projects are not used. It is also critical to understand how nature-based projects are affecting habitats’ and species’ ability to adapt to climate change, since these projects are often intended to address biodiversity loss. These outcomes are not frequently measured; project monitoring tends to focus on how successfully the project was implemented and a few ecological outcomes that do not directly address the resilience of affected habitats and wildlife. We are beginning a project to address these gaps by developing a set of metrics to measure the performance and reliability of nature-based climate adaptation projects for community risk reduction and species/habitat climate adaptation. 
The student will primarily support this effort through literature review to identify a draft set of metrics and preparing materials for discussions with climate adaptation researchers, risk modelers, and nature-based project practitioners. Depending on timing, additional tasks may include finding methods for measuring selected metrics, participating in meetings with relevant subject matter experts, and designing a data system to organize metrics data.