The Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC): Equitable solutions for climate adaptation in Baltimore City

This presentation will provide an overview of the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC), a DOE-funded Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (IFL) based in Baltimore, Maryland USA. BSEC seeks a new paradigm for urban climate research. Inspired by the Urban Integrated Field Laboratory call to provide knowledge that informs equitable solutions that can strengthen community-scale resilience, we are building a people-centered, transdisciplinary IFL. BSEC begins with community priorities (human health and safety, affordable energy, transportation equity, and others) and city government priorities (clean waterways, decarbonization, functioning infrastructure) and designs observation networks and models that will deliver the climate science capable of supporting those priorities. This means that BSEC takes the form of an iterative collaborative cycle, in which an initial observation and modeling strategy is continuously updated in conversation with community partners. The guiding objective of this cycle is to produce the urban climate science needed to inform community-guided “potential equitable pathways” for climate action. In doing so, we address a number of fundamental urban science questions from across natural science and social science disciplines. This presentation will discuss BSEC principles and structure, the urban science questions been addressed, and present examples of engagement with stakeholders and decision-makers, community-driven approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation, community education and engagement, and scientific results.