The projects
Multiple projects have begun under this umbrella and were discussed at the meeting.
“A Water-Energy-Food Nexus approach for describing climate change impacts on water-based ecosystem services by the Páramo of Chingaza, Colombia”
This project is a strategic research collaboration between UTadeo and Penn State to study the effects of climate and land use changes on water provision, food security and downstream energy generation by the Páramo of Chingaza. Paramos are high elevation mountain ecosystems typical of the Andean Mountains, located above the tree line but below permanent snow line (3000-4800 m). This project is led by Michael Ahrens, research group leader, Limnology and Aquatic Ecology at UTadeo, and Andrew Warner, director of the Penn State Water Initiative and director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center at Penn State. The collaboration involves 10 faculty members from Penn State and UTadeo.
“It has been a real thrill and privilege to work on this project,” said Ahrens. “The great diversity of the team has been a real asset in generating new research ideas and hypotheses.”
The project has seen two funding proposals written already, with a third in progress. Eight UTadeo honors, doctoral- or masters-level students are working on theses related to the project.
“This collaboration has opened up a plethora of new research avenues and opportunities for other academic collaboration, and we are very excited to see what the near future holds, in terms of funding and new collaborators,” added Ahrens.
"Multidisciplinary assessment of the livelihood conditions of the vulnerable communities of La Guajira, with a roadmap for change under the WEF Nexus approach"
This collaborative project applies the WEF-Nexus approach to a community level, working with Wayuu indigenous communities in the northern region of Colombia. The work focuses on understanding community perceptions of water, energy, and food use and availability, and how these critical resources are interrelated. The project also applies a gender lens to uncover differences between men and women in perceptions, experiences, and access to resources, with additional focus on understanding changes due to climate change. The PIs are working jointly with community members to develop strategies, such as sustainable community gardens, to address local food and nutritional security.
Co-PIs Paige Castellano, assistant research professor and director of the Gender Equity through Agricultural Research and Education Initiative at Penn State, and Carlos Ricardo Bojacá, professor in the College of Natural Sciences and Engineering at UTadeo, both bring areas of expertise to the project.
“These projects are both incredibly rewarding and challenging. I am excited to collaborate with such a great team of researchers in Colombia, and I continue to be impressed with their ability to adapt and their willingness to take on new parts of the project,” said Castellanos. “Across all of the projects under the WEF partnership, we have the opportunity to highlight inequities based on gender or faced by other marginalized groups and investigate potential solutions at multiple scales.”
“My participation in this project has been enriching to the extent that it has allowed me to work in a new region and under a different approach to my traditional lines of research,” said Bojacá. “The interdisciplinary work with the Penn State team has allowed me to learn and apply new perspectives for social work with communities.”