The South Atlantic LCC is committed to an iterative approach for both refining the information that drives the Conservation Blueprint as well as the utility of the Blueprint to inform conservation decisions. The South Atlantic LCC wishes to provide additional funding to the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit’s existing contract to build on prior deliverables and expand research involving science delivery needs of its cooperative members and communicating science delivery products.
Project Objectives 2017-2018To support the South Atlantic LCC in the roles of extension and research by working with cooperative members.
1. Continue to assist the GIS Coordinator maintain the Conservation Planning Atlas (CPA) by: responding to questions from cooperative members about the CPA; locating and sharing data on the CPA and organizing metadata through the solicitation of partners and cooperative members; and reviewing data from project leaders and updating and creating metadata as needed.
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Continue to provide outreach support to cooperative members by: providing GIS-based application-specific analyses using the Blueprint; capturing feedback concerning Blueprint uses and case studies; participating in education and outreach events and opportunities including trainings, presentations, conferences, and invited talks.
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Based on results from 2017, continue the elicitation and analysis of feedback from cooperative members concerning the effectiveness and constraints of online science delivery applications to support conservation actions as well as work with South Atlantic LCC staff and software developers to improve those applications based on that feedback.
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Build on previous work developing personas (hierarchal archetypes) among cooperative members by: publishing research and analyzing the utility of personas for developing science delivery communication tools for the cooperative.
We propose to continue using multi-disciplinary methods to refine and expand work to date developing personas. Methodology will include working with software developers to use personas to guide the development of online tools to communicate science, continue to research user experience principles to analyze and improve personas and develop a better understanding of cooperative population shifts in terms of beliefs, science needs, and attitudes. We will also review qualitative data collected during six workshops conducted by the South Atlantic LCC across the region in the spring of 2017. Data collected during these workshops will help inform future science delivery needs for the cooperative and assist in framing research questions.
