Research Projects

Current Projects

Community-based Fisheries Management in Belau and Galápagos: Learning with Fishing Communities to Strengthen and Sustain Marine Socioecological Systems

WITH SUPPORT FROM WOODS ENVIRONMENTAL VENTURES PROJECT

This research seeks to address the disconnection between marine conservation efforts and the needs of local fishing communities by co-developing solutions with fishers in Belau and Galápagos. Through participatory methods, the project aims to create more effective and equitable ocean management strategies that protect marine ecosystems while respecting the livelihoods, culture, and knowledge of coastal communities. Learn more here.

Accelerating 30x30 Through a Collaborative Regional Prioritization Partnership

With support from the SDSS Accelerator

In collaboration with PI Liz Hadly (Biology) and co-PI Debbie Sivas (EBS, SDSS; SLS), this multi-part study uses mixed-methods–combining social, legal, and ecological approaches–to model 30x30 conservation planning approaches using the case of potential elk reintroduction in the mid-peninsula region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Empowering Youth in Frontline Communities through Climate Data

With support from Woods Environmental Ventures Project

In collaboration with Victor Lee (GSE) and Jenny Suckale (SDSS, Woods Institute) and in partnership with Climate Resilient Communities, this project aims to empower youth from frontline communities to map and disseminate environmental data through out-of-school learning experiences, while developing a toolkit to position them as changemakers who can leverage this data to raise awareness and advocate for their communities in the face of climate change. Learn more here.

Values and Actions in Home Selection: The Role of Healthy Home Environment Preferences

With support from the Hayward Institute

Although human and environmental health are intertwined within the context of daily life, people rarely consider options available to make their homes healthier for themselves and the planet. Using community listening sessions and surveys in four case-study sites across the United States, we are exploring homeowners’ individual and socially informed decisionmaking processes related to home choice, within a broader social and community perspective.

Investigating Youth Climate Activists’ Motivations and Supports

In collaboration with high school students and undergraduate researchers, this interview study explores the motivations of youth climate activists. Drawing on theoretical frames from affective science, we are exploring, in particular, the relationship between hope/fear and optimism/pessimism as emotions that encourage these young people to become and remain engaged in climate change-related efforts.

Biophilic Design for Psychological and Physiological Health Outcomes

With support from Stanford Health Care Seed Grant

We are undertaking a systematic overview of reviews examining the ways in which biophilic design impacts physiological and psychological health outcomes. The review includes two areas of emphasis: implications for health care settings and the scope of biophilic design research focused on underserved communities. Learn more here.

A Social Science/Sustainability Incubator: Interdisciplinary scholarship and practice to amplify impact and redefine solutions

With support from Stanford’s Sustainability Initiative

In collaboration with co-PI James Jones (SDSS) and to support the continued development of the social science-related research programs in Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability, we hosted a workshop/listening session and conducted interviews with scholars in the social and natural sciences to solicit perspectives on the role of the social sciences in sustainability research.

Tracking Socio-Ecological Recovery after Forest Fire: The Case of Big Basin State Park

With support from: Digital Learning Initiative of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning

Working with community partners at Big Basin State Park, we explored how virtual field trips (VFTs) might support connection to nature, encourage pro-environmental behaviors, and broaden park accessibility. Our VFT team, which also includes technical experts who have previously developed VFTs, collaborated with Big Basin’s park service members to collect photospheres, videos, and sound recordings. The final VFT will be released soon!

Collective Environmental Literacy: Processes and measures related to community action on sustainability and climate

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE UPS FOUNDATION AND THE PISCES FOUNDATION

This project sought to develop preliminary approaches for measuring and fostering collective environmental action in communities. This work examined the critical role of a community’s collective literacy as a motivator of action when grappling with climate change and other sustainability-related issues.

The Summen Project: Coastal fog-mediated interactions between climate change, upwelling, and coast redwood resilience

With support from the NSF’s Coastal Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) program

Named the Summen Project after the Native American word for “redwood,” this three-year, multi-institutional initiative brought together ecologists, biologists, and social scientists to understand how climate change affects the California coastal ecosystem and affects people’s climate-related perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. To address these ecological and social questions, we developed collaborations with partners including regional, state, and national redwood parks. More information on the project is available on our project website as well as in this story and this video.

SEE RELATED PAGE

Research and Practice: Scholars and land managers collaborating for solutions

With support from the Realizing Environmental Innovations Projects (REIP) of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

This project worked to engage Stanford-affiliated researchers from around campus, students, and land managers in collaborative endeavors to produce conservation solutions. Working with the Land Trust Alliance and other partners, we endeavored to develop models for how universities and land trusts might create on-the-ground conservation impact.

With support from the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program

Arguably the most pressing and urgent threats to the health and wellbeing of our society--climate change, resource degradation and, most recently, COVID-19--are at their core collective action issues. This project sought to address how we might most effectively cultivate the transition from individual- to collective-action mindsets to advance sustainability solutions, leveraging process and insight-driven aspects of design thinking.

With support from Stanford University’s RISE Grants

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the fragility of our highly globalized, interconnected society. Never before had we experienced such a large-scale opportunity to witness, in vivo, experiments in collective action occurring worldwide at a single point in time. Through this project we explored the intersectionality among various theoretical approaches on behavioral responses to COVID-19 and analogous sustainability fields, such as climate change. Using a variety of interventions that built on the lab’s prior work, such as postcards, interviews, and the development of virtual communities, we employed humanistic modes of inquiry to explore the nexus of individual and collective emotional and action-oriented responses amid COVID-19.

Environmental Learning and Behavior in the Bay Area: Networks, place connections, and stewardship

With support from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr., Foundation

“Environmental Learning in the Bay Area” was a multi-year, multi-phased, mixed-methods research study that examined how, when, where, and why people learn about the environment and are motivated to act sustainably within a community and regional context. Phase One consisted of two main studies: (1) a social network analysis of organizations and groups engaged with environmental learning, and (2) a sense-of-place and community engagement study among Bay Area residents. Phase Two consisted of in-depth case studies considering the impact of environmental learning on academic, conservation, and sustainability outcomes in a range of contexts.

See here for a dynamic site that includes data from the Bay Area survey.

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E

Girls Learning Environment and Energy (GLEE), a joint effort between Stanford University and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, set out to teach Girl Scouts and their families about the environment and energy conservation. This project was the continuation of an earlier effort, initiated with support from ARPA-E. The first phase culminated with publication of the initial findings in Nature Energy, emphasizing that GLEE participants had significant home energy savings immediately following the program and also at the delayed post measure. Their parents also demonstrated energy savings, suggesting the importance of family learning as well as of building a program and curriculum with a strong theoretically embedded structure. The program was subsequently transformed into online modules to reach more scout troops, leaders, and service units, with an emphasis on a train-the-trainers structure. Publications from the programs’ multiple phases can be found here: https://kyen.stanford.edu/research-projects-and-publications

Facilitating Environmental Behavior: Leveraging nature-based tourism into everyday stewardship

With support from the Environmental Ventures Projects (EVP) Program of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

This research examined nature-based tourism as an opportunity to facilitate environmental behavior. It built on scholarship in visitor studies and behavioral science to develop targeted post-trip follow-up that leveraged visitors´ pre-trip motivations and post-trip spike in interest in environment and stewardship. The work included a pilot study at Año Nuevo State Park (CA) and a full study at Galapagos Islands National Park in Ecuador.

With support from the U.S. EPA

We were a key partner in ee360, a five-year initiative of the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Our role focused on strengthening research-and-practice connections, as part of the initiative’s broader goals of supporting environmental education (EE) leaders and mobilizing their use of high-quality resources. This project addressed the challenge of connecting practitioners with current research findings and research-based resources and extended our work of producing the Environmental Education Research Bulletins. Project activities included conducting in-person and online workshops that leveraged design-thinking tools and mindsets to generate creative strategies for connecting research and practice. The workshops–and the insights they generated–formed the basis for developing a StanfordOnline/EdX course that is relevant to environmental educators working in formal and/or informal settings, as well as professionals from a range of fields with interest in more effectively connecting research and practice. The course can be accessed here: https://tinyurl.com/DesforChange

eeWorks: Anecdotes to evidence

With support from NAAEE, U.S. EPA, U.S. Forest Service

In collaboration with the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE), with support from the US EPA, US Forest Service, and other philanthropic partners, we conducted systematic literature reviews that considered the research basis of environmental education. We explored the research basis of environmental education with different audiences, including with K-12 students and in early childhood education, and with different outcomes, such as conservation outcomes, civic engagement, and positive youth development. Derived from the findings of those reviews, NAAEE developed collateral messaging and communication tools that expounded upon the literature review findings.

Blue Habits: Motivating pro-ocean behaviors among nature travelers

The Blue Habits research project aimed to foster pro-environmental behavior after nature-based tourism experiences. The project built on visitor studies research and behavioral science to develop targeted post-trip activities that leveraged visitors’ spike in interest in the environment and stewardship. The research was conducted in conjunction with Oceanic Society and specifically their California whale-watching programs out of Half Moon Bay and San Francisco.