Opportunities and Challenges to Increase Inter- and Transdisciplinarity: A Qualitative Study of the FloodRISE Project
Background: The FloodRISE project, which started in 2013 in Southern California, aimed at better understanding how to promote resilience to coastal flooding. It was based on a cross-disciplinary approach, involving several research teams and local communities. Purpose: We conducted a qualitative stu...
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The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University,
2020-07-01T00:00:00Z.
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| Summary: | Background: The FloodRISE project, which started in 2013 in Southern California, aimed at better understanding how to promote resilience to coastal flooding. It was based on a cross-disciplinary approach, involving several research teams and local communities. Purpose: We conducted a qualitative study of the first phase of the project (2013-2015) in order to analyze its inter- and transdisciplinary aspects. Setting: We conducted this evaluation as a visiting postdoctoral researcher at UCI, not participating in the FloodRISE project. Intervention: Not applicable. Research design: We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with members of the three project teams - modeling, social ecology and integration & impact - at UCI in 2015. Data were analyzed and interpreted to identify key aspects of the collaboration within and between project teams, as well as their relationship to local stakeholders. Findings: The analysis showed that an intensive dialogue-based method of interaction and the presence of boundary researchers played a fundamental role in bridging the conceptual and methodological gaps between social and engineering sciences. These results thus exemplify several possibilities for developing more efficient interactions between researchers in a cross-disciplinary project. However, any cross-disciplinary project should: carefully evaluate potential for participants to become boundary researchers, since participants with multiple disciplinary expertise may be underemployed; improve researchers' level of readiness, in order to facilitate further interaction and increase time efficiency; and clearly address remoteness issues to avoid lower collaboration between central and peripheral locations. Keywords: interdisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; qualitative study; project evaluation; flood risk |
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| Item Description: | 10.56645/jmde.v16i35.625 1556-8180 |