Professor Colin Polsky was recently awarded as co-PI, as part of a multi-institutional team, a two-year, $298k grant from the US National Science Foundation's "ULTRA-ex" competition, for the proposal "Boston Metropolitan Area ULTRA: Exploring past, current and future socio-ecological dynamics in a founding city." The PI is Prof. Paige Warren, U. Mass.-Amherst. He has been also been awarded $300,000 from NOAA for the project: Integrated Water and Land Planning as Climate Adaptation Strategy: comparisons of Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona, as a co-PI with faculty at Portland State University (Oregon; Heejun Chang, PI) and Arizona State University. He was recently awarded a 3-year, $360,000 "REU Site" grant from the US National Science Foundation, with Professors John Rogan and R. Gil Pontius, Jr. as co-Principal Investigators. This REU Site award will take the Clark HERO program to the national level. Professor Polsky was also recently awarded a 4.5-year, $1.4M NSF grant from the Coupled Natural-Human (CNH) Systems competition, in collaboration with Professor Gil Pontius, Chuck Hopkinson at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and Wil Wollheim and Charles Vorosmarty at the University of New Hampshire. Professor Polsky is the Director of the HERO program and one of the program's core research faculty. Colin Polsky joined the faculty as Assistant Professor in 2003. Dr. Polsky received his Ph.D. and M.S. (Geography) degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and B.S. (mathematics) and B.A. (humanities, French) degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has also completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University, with the Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government. This Fellowship is sponsored by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Colin is a geographer specializing in the human dimensions of global environmental change, emphasizing the statistical analysis of vulnerability to climate change. He has explored ways to blend quantitative and qualitative methods for the study of social and ecological vulnerability to environmental changes in the Arctic (with a focus on traditional reindeer herding), the U.S. Great Plains (with a focus on contemporary agriculture), and central and eastern Massachusetts (with foci on suburban water management, and on fishing communities). This research requires the blending of statistical techniques (such as empirical downscaling and spatial econometrics) with insight gained from qualitative methods (such as interviews and participant observation). Colin is affiliated with Clark University's George Perkins Marsh Institute. Through the HERO program, Professor Polsky is also engaged in research on smart growth. This research explores how the processes of urban growth and natural hazard mitigation interact in New England, and possible ways to improve the management of associated risks. Methods for this research include Geographic Information Systems, spatial statistics, and exploratory mapping and analysis tools. Selected PublicationsNational Research Council, 2009 (in progress). Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences in the Next Decade, National Academies Press: Washington, D.C. Yarnal, B., Polsky, C. and O'Brien, J. (Editors) 2009. Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York, 368 pp. Polsky, C., Assefa, S., Del Vecchio, K., Hill, T., Merner, L., Tercero, I. and Pontius, G., 2009. The Mounting Risk of Drought in a Humid Landscape: Structure and Agency in Suburbanizing Massachusetts. In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York. Polsky, C., Comrie, A., Whitehead, J., Sorrensen, C., Butler Harrington, L.M., Lu, M., Neff, R. and Yarnal, B., 2009. Rapid Vulnerability Assessments of Exposures, Sensitivities, and Adaptive Capacities of the HERO Study Sites. In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York. Polsky, C., Neff, R. and Yarnal, B., 2009. Establishing Vulnerability Observatory Networks to Coordinate the Collection and Analysis of Comparable Data In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York. Polsky, C., Sorrensen, C., Whitehead, J., Butler Harrington, L.M., Lu, M., Neff, R. and Yarnal, B., 2009. Evaluating Vulnerability Assessments of the HERO Study Sites. In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York. Polsky, C., Sorrensen, C., Whitehead, J. and Neff, R., 2009. Assessing Local Vulnerabilities: Methodological Approaches and Regional Contexts. In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press, New York. Yarnal, B., Harrington, J.J., Comriem, A.C., Polsky, C. and Ahlqvist, O., 2009. Infrastructure for Observing Local Human-Environment Interactions In: B. Yarnal, C. Polsky and J. O'Brien (Editors), Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet: The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project. Cambridge University Press New York.
Polsky, C., R. Neff, and B. Yarnal, 2007. "Building Comparable Global Change Vulnerability Assessments: The Vulnerability Scoping Diagram." Global Environmental Change 17: 472-485. Hill, T. and Polsky, C., 2007. Development and drought in suburbia: A mixed methods rapid assessment of vulnerability to drought in rainy Massachusetts. Global Environmental Change, Part B: Environmental Hazards 7:291-301. Polsky, C., J. Rogan, R.G. Pontius Jr., and B.L. Turner II, 2007. "Undergraduate GIScience Research at Clark University: The HERO Program." Council on Undergraduate Research 27 (3): 124-130. Young, O.R., E.F. Lambin, F. Alcock, H. Haberl, S.I. Karlsson, W.J. McConnell, T. Myint, C. Pahl-Wostl, C. Polsky, P. Ramakrishnan, H. Schroeder, M. Scouvart, and P.H. Verburg, 2006. A portfolio approach to analyzing complex human-environment interactions: institutions and land change. Ecology and Society. 11 (2): 31 [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vo111/iss2/art31/ Sorrensen, C., C. Polsky, and R. Neff, 2005. "The Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Project: Undergraduate Research Findings from Four Study Sites." Geographical Bulletin 47 (2): 65-72. Hill, T. and C. Polsky, 2005. "Adaptation to Drought in the Context of Suburban Sprawl and Abundant Rainfall." Geographical Bulletin 47 (2): 85-100. Schröter, D., C. Polsky, and A. Patt, 2005. “Assessing Vulnerabilities to the Effects of Global Change: An Eight-Step Approach.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 10(4): 573-595. Polsky, C. and Cash, D., 2005. Reducing Vulnerability to the Effects of Global Change: Drought Management in a Multi-Scale, Multi-Stressor World. In: D. Wilhite (Editor), Drought and Water Crises: Science, Technology, and Management Issues. Marcel Drekker, Amsterdam, pp. 215-245. Polsky, C., 2004. Putting Space and Time in Ricardian Climate Change Impact Studies: The Case of Agriculture in the U.S. Great Plains. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94(3): 549-564. Denny, A., B. Yarnal, and C. Polsky, 2002. “The Central Pennsylvania study area: How coal dominates the greenhouse gas problem.” In: Global Change in Local Places , R. Kates and T. Wilbanks, eds. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge & New York. Easterling, W.E. and C. Polsky, 2002. “Crossing the Complex Divide: Linking Scales for Understanding Coupled Human-Environment Systems.” In: Scale and Geographic Inquiry , R.B. McMaster and E. Sheppard, eds. Oxford: Blackwell. Polsky, C. and W.E. Easterling III, 2001.“Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in the US Great Plains: A Multi-Scale Analysis of Ricardian Climate Sensitivities.” Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 85(1-3):133-144. Polsky, C., J. Allard, N. Currit, R. Crane and B. Yarnal, 2000. “The Mid-Atlantic Region and its Climate: Past, Present and Future.” Climate Research 14(3):161-173. Easterling, W.E., C. Polsky, D. Goodin, M.W. Mayfield, W.A. Muraco and B. Yarnal, 1998. “Changing Places, Changing Emissions: the cross-scale reliability of greenhouse gas emission inventories in the US.” Local Environment 3(3):247-262. U.S. EPA, 1995. Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-1994, Washington, D.C. Overall production manager and lead author for Chapter Two, “Industrial Processes.” |
