weADAPT upgrade adds innovative tools

Written by Marion Davis

Monday, 18 April 2011 10:06

The weADAPT Adaptation Layer in the Google Earth interface.


SEI has unveiled a new version of weADAPT, an online ‘open space’ on climate adaptation issues for practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

Created in collaboration with a wide range of partners, weADAPT is designed to help users access credible, high-quality information about adaptation – including synergies with mitigation – and to share experiences and lessons learned.

The goal is to facilitate learning, exchange, collaboration and knowledge integration to build a professional community of practice on adaptation issues while developing policy-relevant tools and guidance for adaptation planning and decision-making.

The new release of weADAPT includes several innovative tools, including the Adaptation Layer, a Google Earth interface that maps adaptation initiatives around the world and allows users to post their own ‘adaptation stories’, accessible by clicking on dots on the 3-D map.

In addition, the new weADAPT release adds a climate adaptation Knowledge Base, customised user and organisation profiles, and adaptation decision support tools such as the prototype Adaptation Decision Explorer (ADx).

The weADAPT community is expanding on a daily basis, so content shared by users is visible to an ever-growing number of people worldwide who can not only benefit from it, but possibly build on it in new ways.

“One of the big differences between weADAPT and other portals is that investing a small amount of time to add content – even just a personal profile – immediately links you to a huge amount of other things, such as projects, networks, organisations, people and articles,” says project coordinator Sukaina Bharwani. “This gives users and organisations in the field of climate adaptation very high visibility, substantially increasing the profile of their work.”

Why weADAPT?
Joining the weADAPT community has many benefits:
Connect: weADAPT links you with other climate adaptation professionals with similar interests, helping you make valuable connections.
Share: Create content to share with other researchers and practitioners in the network and access all relevant information in one place, including reports, articles, Google Earth placemarks, relevant organizations, and professional contacts.
Learn: weADAPT goes beyond ‘knowledge-sharing’ to link and interconnect our collective knowledge in meaningful ways that are also tailored to individuals’ needs and interests.

weADAPT Knowledge Partners
SEI has led the development of weADAPT in collaboration with many Knowledge Partners, including the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), through the Community Based Adaptation Exchange (CBA-X); the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) at the University of Cape Town (UCT); the United Nations Environment Programme Regional Resource Center in Asia and the Pacific (UNEP RRCAP); the Swedish Environmental Secretariat for Asia (SENSA); Oxfam Great Britain; the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR); Google.org; Environment and Development Action in the Third World (ENDA); and the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START).