Social Sciences for Environmental Security

Mission— Providing Research and End-user Products to Accelerate Readiness and Environmental Security (PREPARES)

This program will leverage and integrate expertise from operational end users, physical climate scientists and models, tools, and datasets, and social scientists with deep understanding of designated regional and local communities to anticipate and respond more quickly and precisely to climate and environmental change risks and opportunities. The program aims to explore how specific environmental and social indicators might inform strategic reviews to adapt warfighter training and planning in anticipation of climate global trends. The research program will build upon the products of the 6.1 Minerva Research Initiative (program element 0601110D8Z) with a focus on end-user defined mission, geographic, and timescale priorities to forecast local and regional climate and environmental change effects, assess and predict likely societal impacts and responses, and ultimately provide operations planners technically-relevant and operationally precise scenarios to incorporate into Contingency Plans (CONPLANs) and Operational Plans (OPLANs) and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) requirements related to climate change.

Mission— Social Sciences for Environmental Security

This program supports the Department's initiative to Build Sustainable and Long-Term Advantage. This program funds Department of Defense (DoD) physical climate and social science applied research. Climate and environmental change will impact the full range of U.S. military operating environments. DoD capabilities, until recently, have been aligned toward the historical environmental and geopolitical record; failure to anticipate and plan for the security effects of climate and environmental change holds significant potential to not only degrade DoD readiness and effectiveness but also compound the frequency and scope of novel geostrategic risks and surprises. Efforts under this program will focus on interdisciplinary science and technology that spans physical climate modeling and forecasting and social sciences capable of yielding tangible decision support tools that empower operational planners to prepare for and adapt to the complicated, interconnected security and stability challenges of climate and environmental change. Insights derived from this program will enable Combatant Commands to better engage key partners and allies in efforts to plan for and mitigate risks and promote global peace and stability. The program includes studies, investigations, and non-system specific technology efforts directed toward general military needs with a view toward developing and evaluating the feasibility and practicality of proposed solutions and determining their parameters.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (1)