Katherine R. Clifford, Ph.D. (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Social and Institutional Aspects of Natural Resource Decision Making Team (FRESC)
Our work uses a range of social science methods including interviews, surveys, listening sessions, workshops, and document analysis, to understand how Department of the Interior land managers and others make natural resource decisions.
Public Land Manager Decision-Making Under Ecological Transformation
As pressures from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors, like invasive species, increase, new challenges arise for natural resource managers who are responsible for the health of public lands. One of the greatest challenges these managers face is that the traditional way of managing resources might not be as effective, or in some cases might be ineffective, in light of...
Developing and Testing a Rapid Assessment Method for Understanding Key Social Factors of Ecological Drought Preparedness
Drought is a complex environmental hazard that impacts both ecological and social systems. Accounting for the role of human attitudes, institutions, and societal values in drought planning is important to help identify how various drought durations and severity may differentially affect social resilience to adequately respond to and manage drought impacts. While there have been...
The dynamic feasibility of resisting (R), accepting (A), or directing (D) ecological change
Ecological transformations are occurring as a result of climate change, challenging traditional approaches to land management decision-making. The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework helps managers consider how to respond to this challenge. We examined how the feasibility of the choices to resist, accept, and direct shifts in complex and dynamic ways through time. We considered 4...
Authors
Amanda E. Cravens, Katherine R. Clifford, Corrine N. Knapp, William Travis
User needs assessment for postfire debris-flow inundation hazard products
Debris flows are a type of mass movement that is more likely after wildfires, and while existing hazard assessments evaluate the rainfall intensities that are likely to trigger debris flows, no operational hazard assessment exists for identifying the areas where they will run out after initiation. Fifteen participants who work in a wide range of job functions associated with southern...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Veronica Romero, Katherine R. Clifford
Rapidly assessing social characteristics of drought preparedness and decision making: A guide for practitioners
Executive SummaryThis guide is intended to provide managers, decision makers, and other practitioners with advice on conducting a rapid assessment of the social dimensions of drought. Findings from a rapid assessment can provide key social context that may aid in decision making, such as when preparing a drought plan, allocating local drought resilience funding, or gathering the support...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Julia B. Goolsby, Amanda E. Cravens, Ashley E. Cooper
Resist, accept, and direct responses to biological invasions: A social–ecological perspective
Biological invasions represent an important and unique case of ecological transformation that can strongly influence species and entire ecosystems. Challenges in managing invasions arise on multiple fronts, ranging from diverse and often divergent values associated with native and introduced species, logistical constraints, and transformation via other change agents (e.g., climate and...
Authors
Jason B. Dunham, Joseph R. Benjamin, David J. Lawrence, Katherine R. Clifford
Management foundations for navigating ecological transformation by resisting, accepting, or directing social-ecological change
Despite striking global change, management to ensure healthy landscapes and sustained natural resources has tended to set objectives on the basis of the historical range of variability in stationary ecosystems. Many social–ecological systems are moving into novel conditions that can result in ecological transformation. We present four foundations to enable a transition to future-oriented...
Authors
Dawn Robin Magness, Linh Hoang, Travis Belote, Jean Brennan, Wylie A. Carr, F. Stuart Chapin, Katherine R. Clifford, Wendy Morrison, John P. Morton, Helen Sofaer
A science agenda to inform natural resource management decisions in an era of ecological transformation
Earth is experiencing widespread ecological transformation in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems that is attributable to directional environmental changes, especially intensifying climate change. To better steward ecosystems facing unprecedented and lasting change, a new management paradigm is forming, supported by a decision-oriented framework that presents three distinct...
Authors
Shelley D. Crausbay, Helen Sofaer, Amanda E. Cravens, Brian C. Chaffin, Katherine R. Clifford, John E. Gross, Corrine N. Knapp, David J. Lawrence, Dawn Robin Magness, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Gregor W. Schuurman, Camille S. Stevens-Rumann
Responding to ecological transformation: Mental models, external constraints, and manager decision-making
Ecological transformation creates many challenges for public natural resource management and requires managers to grapple with new relationships to change and new ways to manage it. In the context of unfamiliar trajectories of ecological change, a manager can resist, accept, or direct change, choices that make up the resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework. In this article, we provide a...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Amanda E. Cravens, Corrine N. Knapp
Navigating climate adaptation on public lands: How views on ecosystem change and scale interact with management approaches
Managers are increasingly being asked to integrate climate change adaptation into public land management. The literature discusses a range of adaptation approaches, including managing for resistance, resilience, and transformation; but many strategies have not yet been widely tested. This study employed in-depth interviews and scenario-based focus groups in the Upper Gunnison Basin in...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Laurie Yung, William Travis, Renée Rondeau, Betsy Neely, Imtiaz Rangwala, Nina Burkardt, Carina Wyborn
Natural resource management decision-making under climate uncertainty: Building social-ecological resilience in southwestern Colorado
The goal of this project was to facilitate climate change adaptation that contributes to social-ecological resilience, ecosystem and species conservation, and sustainable human communities in southwestern Colorado. The team developed and piloted integrated adaptation planning tools and principles that merge the strengths of the iterative scenario process, the Adaptation for Conservation...
Authors
Nina Burkardt, Marcie Bidwell, Katherine R. Clifford, Betsy Neely, Patricia Orth, Imtiaz Rangwala, Renée Rondeau, Carina Wyborn, Laurie Yung
Non-USGS Publications**
Clifford, K. R., & Travis, W. R. (2018). Knowing climate as a social-ecological-atmospheric construct. Global Environmental Change, 49, 1-9.
Clifford, K. R., Travis, W. R., & Nordgren, L. T. (2020). A climate knowledges approach to climate services. Climate Services, 18, 100155.
Kelley, L. C., Clifford, K. R., Reisman, E., Lea, D., Matsler, M., Liebman, A., & Malone, M. (2018). Charting a critical physical geography path in graduate school: sites of student agency. In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography (pp. 537-557). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Koebele, E., Crow, D. A., Lawhon, L. A., Kroepsch, A., Schild, R., & Clifford, K. (2015). Wildfire outreach and citizen entrepreneurs in the wildland–urban interface: A cross-case analysis in Colorado. Society & Natural Resources, 28(8), 918-923, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1054975
Clifford, K.R., and Travis, W.R. (2021). The New (ab)Normal: Outliers, everyday exceptionality and the politics of data management in the Anthropocene. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111:3, 932-943, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1785836
Katherine R. Clifford (2021) Problematic Exclusions: Analysis of the Clean Air Act’s Exceptional Event Rule Revisions, Society & Natural Resources, 34:2, 135-148, DOI:10.1080/08941920.2020.1780358
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Social and Institutional Aspects of Natural Resource Decision Making Team (FRESC)
Our work uses a range of social science methods including interviews, surveys, listening sessions, workshops, and document analysis, to understand how Department of the Interior land managers and others make natural resource decisions.
Public Land Manager Decision-Making Under Ecological Transformation
As pressures from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors, like invasive species, increase, new challenges arise for natural resource managers who are responsible for the health of public lands. One of the greatest challenges these managers face is that the traditional way of managing resources might not be as effective, or in some cases might be ineffective, in light of...
Developing and Testing a Rapid Assessment Method for Understanding Key Social Factors of Ecological Drought Preparedness
Drought is a complex environmental hazard that impacts both ecological and social systems. Accounting for the role of human attitudes, institutions, and societal values in drought planning is important to help identify how various drought durations and severity may differentially affect social resilience to adequately respond to and manage drought impacts. While there have been...
The dynamic feasibility of resisting (R), accepting (A), or directing (D) ecological change
Ecological transformations are occurring as a result of climate change, challenging traditional approaches to land management decision-making. The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework helps managers consider how to respond to this challenge. We examined how the feasibility of the choices to resist, accept, and direct shifts in complex and dynamic ways through time. We considered 4...
Authors
Amanda E. Cravens, Katherine R. Clifford, Corrine N. Knapp, William Travis
User needs assessment for postfire debris-flow inundation hazard products
Debris flows are a type of mass movement that is more likely after wildfires, and while existing hazard assessments evaluate the rainfall intensities that are likely to trigger debris flows, no operational hazard assessment exists for identifying the areas where they will run out after initiation. Fifteen participants who work in a wide range of job functions associated with southern...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Veronica Romero, Katherine R. Clifford
Rapidly assessing social characteristics of drought preparedness and decision making: A guide for practitioners
Executive SummaryThis guide is intended to provide managers, decision makers, and other practitioners with advice on conducting a rapid assessment of the social dimensions of drought. Findings from a rapid assessment can provide key social context that may aid in decision making, such as when preparing a drought plan, allocating local drought resilience funding, or gathering the support...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Julia B. Goolsby, Amanda E. Cravens, Ashley E. Cooper
Resist, accept, and direct responses to biological invasions: A social–ecological perspective
Biological invasions represent an important and unique case of ecological transformation that can strongly influence species and entire ecosystems. Challenges in managing invasions arise on multiple fronts, ranging from diverse and often divergent values associated with native and introduced species, logistical constraints, and transformation via other change agents (e.g., climate and...
Authors
Jason B. Dunham, Joseph R. Benjamin, David J. Lawrence, Katherine R. Clifford
Management foundations for navigating ecological transformation by resisting, accepting, or directing social-ecological change
Despite striking global change, management to ensure healthy landscapes and sustained natural resources has tended to set objectives on the basis of the historical range of variability in stationary ecosystems. Many social–ecological systems are moving into novel conditions that can result in ecological transformation. We present four foundations to enable a transition to future-oriented...
Authors
Dawn Robin Magness, Linh Hoang, Travis Belote, Jean Brennan, Wylie A. Carr, F. Stuart Chapin, Katherine R. Clifford, Wendy Morrison, John P. Morton, Helen Sofaer
A science agenda to inform natural resource management decisions in an era of ecological transformation
Earth is experiencing widespread ecological transformation in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems that is attributable to directional environmental changes, especially intensifying climate change. To better steward ecosystems facing unprecedented and lasting change, a new management paradigm is forming, supported by a decision-oriented framework that presents three distinct...
Authors
Shelley D. Crausbay, Helen Sofaer, Amanda E. Cravens, Brian C. Chaffin, Katherine R. Clifford, John E. Gross, Corrine N. Knapp, David J. Lawrence, Dawn Robin Magness, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Gregor W. Schuurman, Camille S. Stevens-Rumann
Responding to ecological transformation: Mental models, external constraints, and manager decision-making
Ecological transformation creates many challenges for public natural resource management and requires managers to grapple with new relationships to change and new ways to manage it. In the context of unfamiliar trajectories of ecological change, a manager can resist, accept, or direct change, choices that make up the resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework. In this article, we provide a...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Amanda E. Cravens, Corrine N. Knapp
Navigating climate adaptation on public lands: How views on ecosystem change and scale interact with management approaches
Managers are increasingly being asked to integrate climate change adaptation into public land management. The literature discusses a range of adaptation approaches, including managing for resistance, resilience, and transformation; but many strategies have not yet been widely tested. This study employed in-depth interviews and scenario-based focus groups in the Upper Gunnison Basin in...
Authors
Katherine R. Clifford, Laurie Yung, William Travis, Renée Rondeau, Betsy Neely, Imtiaz Rangwala, Nina Burkardt, Carina Wyborn
Natural resource management decision-making under climate uncertainty: Building social-ecological resilience in southwestern Colorado
The goal of this project was to facilitate climate change adaptation that contributes to social-ecological resilience, ecosystem and species conservation, and sustainable human communities in southwestern Colorado. The team developed and piloted integrated adaptation planning tools and principles that merge the strengths of the iterative scenario process, the Adaptation for Conservation...
Authors
Nina Burkardt, Marcie Bidwell, Katherine R. Clifford, Betsy Neely, Patricia Orth, Imtiaz Rangwala, Renée Rondeau, Carina Wyborn, Laurie Yung
Non-USGS Publications**
Clifford, K. R., & Travis, W. R. (2018). Knowing climate as a social-ecological-atmospheric construct. Global Environmental Change, 49, 1-9.
Clifford, K. R., Travis, W. R., & Nordgren, L. T. (2020). A climate knowledges approach to climate services. Climate Services, 18, 100155.
Kelley, L. C., Clifford, K. R., Reisman, E., Lea, D., Matsler, M., Liebman, A., & Malone, M. (2018). Charting a critical physical geography path in graduate school: sites of student agency. In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography (pp. 537-557). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Koebele, E., Crow, D. A., Lawhon, L. A., Kroepsch, A., Schild, R., & Clifford, K. (2015). Wildfire outreach and citizen entrepreneurs in the wildland–urban interface: A cross-case analysis in Colorado. Society & Natural Resources, 28(8), 918-923, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1054975
Clifford, K.R., and Travis, W.R. (2021). The New (ab)Normal: Outliers, everyday exceptionality and the politics of data management in the Anthropocene. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111:3, 932-943, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1785836
Katherine R. Clifford (2021) Problematic Exclusions: Analysis of the Clean Air Act’s Exceptional Event Rule Revisions, Society & Natural Resources, 34:2, 135-148, DOI:10.1080/08941920.2020.1780358
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.