Planning: CHIRRP: Southern Plains Dry-Line Research and Adaptation Center (SPDRAP)

The planning grant develops academic-community partnerships that will advance Earth systems science in the study of regional impacts of climate change. It will do this through the creation of a working group and a series of workshops that prioritize community needs as a result of the shifting dryline in the southern Great Plains – the transition separating aridity zones in the region.

Community priorities are integrated into the project through engagement with partners at early stages of the project. Project goals focus on efforts to adapt to and mitigate the effects of the shifting dryline zone. A particular objective of this planning project is to identify community needs and determine which Earth science projects should take priority to be responsive to community interests.

The dryline, which separates the arid western portion of the southern Great Plains (and the US) from the less arid eastern side of the line, has created three zones (arid west, the transition zone, less arid east). Each zone differs in climate, and therefore life, and as climate change shifts the line from west to east, life will need to adjust to these changes in climate.

The planning grant is framed on the following three objectives, (1) convene an interdisciplinary working group of academics and community members; (2) co-produce knowledge between community partners and scientists about life along and on either side of the dryline, with an aim to identify Earth science projects and preliminary solution sets that are demonstrably actionable and community-relevant; and (3) coalesce the ideas and guiding principles from community members and academics, via a series of workshops. The shifting dryline has myriad implications for communities located in each of the three zones created by the shifting dryline.

This planning grant focuses on shifting patterns of extreme weather (both convective events and extreme temperatures), increases in the size and scope of wildfires, impacts on agricultural practices, impacts on aging electrical grid infrastructure, and the changing economic and cultural characteristics of communities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.