At the 2025 July Earth System Information Partners (ESIP) Meeting

Bridging high value Earth system data with real world needs: Lessons learned through community engagement and resource co-development

Date: Tuesday July 22, 2025

Event: 2025 July ESIP Meeting

Location: Seattle, WA & Online

Description:

Often, professionals seek to provide data and information to other highly skilled professionals, but at the same time, these data and information are often intended to drive change or decision making in communities containing a broad range of skills and expertise (e.g., volunteer emergency management directors, town planners, and those engaged in resilience planning). This session will first share the basics of community engagement (what it is and is not), how community engagement was employed in a recent study aimed at improving the use and accessibility of NOAA’s National Water Model to stakeholders engaged in community resilience planning and decision-making, and will conclude with exploring how community engagement can be employed in session participants own work.

Participants will leave with a better understanding of how to incorporate community engagement into their own work by exploring the practical steps of employing community-engaged methods, key considerations when translating important technical information for use by non-technical end users, and how to navigate common pitfalls.

Speakers: 

• Kristin Raub, Global Resilience Institute
• Tony Castronova, CUAHSI
• Irene Garousi Nejad, CUAHSI