Focus Areas
To build healthy and thriving Alaskan communities, economies, and ecosystems in a changing climate, ACCAP is focused on several core areas:
Extreme Events — Tribal Resilience
Outreach and Engagement — Sustained Assessment
Small Grants — Evaluation
Extreme Events
Our team researches extreme events and their impacts through an integrated approach. For example, we document socio-economic impacts of extreme climate and weather events, we engage practitioners to determine and meet information needs, and we analyze historical and projected change occurrences to inform policy and decision-making.
Featured projects
- Southeast Alaska Drought and Extreme Event Workshop
- Avalanche Assessment and Prediction in Alaska
Recent publications and reports
Tribal Resilience
Our team is working on building capacity in Alaska Native communities to support Tribal Resilience. We work with Alaska Native Peoples to investigate boundary spanning and knowledge co-production between communities and climate researchers. Outcomes inform workforce and economic development and adaptation planning.
Featured projects
- Kake Climate Partnership
- Building Capacity of Rural Communities to Respond and Adapt to Climate Change
Recent publications and reports
- The Kake Climate Partnership: Implementing a knowledge co-production framework to provide climate services in Southeast Alaska
- Alaskan wild food harvester information needs and climate adaptation strategies
Outreach and Engagement
Our team advances climate change related outreach, science communication, engagement, and networking in Alaska among diverse groups, including Alaska Native-serving organizations, Tribal governments, Alaska Native communities, state and federal agencies, university scientists, and state and federal policy-makers.
Featured projects
Recent reports, news, and communications
- NOAA Arctic Report Card
- Alaska’s June Wildfires Break Records, Fueled by Hot, Dry Weather - Rick Thoman contributed to Washington Post Article about Alaska wildfires, 2022
- Western Alaska confronts damage after historic storm - Rick Thoman contributed to Washington Post Article after Typhoon Merbok, 2022
- Climate Change Comes for the Freezers, a Key Tool for Alaska Natives - Rick Thoman contributed to New York Times article after Typhoon Merbok, 2022
Sustained Assessment
Sustained assessment is a supplemental program aimed at deepening engagement with communities, developing networks to share information, delivering climate science and services to support action, and working with communities to monitor and evaluate processes.
Featured projects
- Sustained Assessment Workshop, June 2022
- Community of Practice Workshop, September 2022
- Climate Adaptation Landscape Assessment
Recent publications and reports
Small Grants
This supplemental program provides funding to statewide and regional non-profit organizations that serve Alaska Native Peoples. The goal of the program is to enhance capacity for resilience and adaptation by supporting efforts to develop local leadership, share relevant scientific information, and create a process for mutual learning.
Featured projects
Recent publications and reports
Program Evaluation
Our team uses evaluation processes to determine how well our research is informing societal outcomes as well as our internal understanding of what motivates our work, our underlying assumptions, and why we believe that our interventions will lead to anticipated outcomes (our Theory of Change).
Featured projects
- Kake Climate Partnership co-production assessment
- Supporting coastal community resilience in Alaska: an evaluation of the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO)
Recents reports and publications
