The ResClim - Impact2C – Nansen Zhu Summer School 2014, located in the beautiful scenery of Rosendal.
On Monday morning Stefan Sobolowski, head of the summer school, welcomed the participants from Europe, Bangladesh and China with an overarching challenge : the AIM Challenge (Assess, Integrate, Make a plan!).
All participants are climate researchers, split evenly between impacts modellers and dynamical modellers. But the disciplines vary from atmospheric sciences, ecology, environmental economics, agriculture to hydrology.
During the week the participants sat together in inter-disciplinary teams, given five regions to concentrate on; China, the Maldives, West Africa, Mediteranean and Bangladesh.
”In small groups they have an opportunity to work collaboratively towards a common goal and also gain experience in communicating across disciplinary boundaries. Understanding and addressing climate change, impacts and adaptation is difficult and highly multi-disciplinary” Sobolowski says.
Press briefings
To sum up the group work from each day, the groups gave short press briefings from their findings. Starting on Monday, with more standard scientific presentations, the press briefings improved throughout the week.
“By the end of the week the groups were starting to think creatively and apply journalistic principles to communicate key information with attention-grabbing headlines and concise, informative leads. What has impressed me is the breadth of issues we have been able to cover and the participants willingness to step outside of the comfort of their specialized research areas.” Sobolowski says.
Diverse backgrounds
At the summer school the participants are working on real data. By the end of the summer school, Sobolowski hopes the participants have achieved an ability to describe the physical aspects of climate change on regional scales, in addition to have gained an appreciation for the complex impacts these changes have on a variety of sectors and both human and natural systems.
And as addressing climate change, impacts and adaptation is multi-disciplinary, Sobolowski hopes the participants have achieved to work across disciplinary boundaries. Near the end of the week, the groups are working well, despite the diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
“There are some difficulties related to communication as we have many participants from outside the EU. However, there has been a genuine attempt by all to be inclusive and to contribute to their respective groups”, Sobolowski says.
Time for hike
A hike in the mountains is necessary when visiting Rosendal. The group went on hike wednesday to the Bondhusbreen glacier. And some took a trip up the steep Malmangernuten close to the Rosendal Fjordhotel. This resultet in many nice photos. Take a look at a few of them!
Hiking Malmangernuten. Photo: Oskar Landgren
The Malmangernuten in sunset, in company with some locals. Photo: Tore Furevik
Hiking Bondhusdalen. Photo: Oskar Landgren
A tiny cairn in Bondhusdalen. Photo: Oskar Landgren
Summer school hike to Bondhusdalen. On front row (left to right) Lola Kotova, Huijin Cui, Sabdir Rahman, Ying Huang. Back row standing (l-r): Judith Stagl, Stefan Sobolowski, Kun Wang, Bakhtiyor Pulatov, Sandro Calmanti, Emiliano Bozzi, Xiaomin Zhou, Nabir Mamnun, Shengping He, Martin Jury, Fei Li, Oskar Landgren.