Concept and design

KASL is modeled after other field experimentation sites located in the US, Brazil, and South Africa, but KASL draws on principles that did not exist when those prior sites were conceived. It is owned and managed by the Marshallese, and supported by both the US Office of Naval Research and a large number of expert affiliates. KASL is allied with USINDOPACOM in Hawai'i, and with faculty at academic institutions in several countries.

 

There are two goals:

• Evaluate interesting ideas in climate adaptation for vulnerable populations using rigorous social and technical standards.

• Share everything found useful with anyone who asks.

 

Below we describe the design principles behind KASL testing. Drawn from a large network, they take advantage of global lessons identified over the past decade, including the simple courtesy of “Don’t do anything FOR me WITHOUT me.” Incorporation of these principles will help ensure that any idea to be tested does not worsen the global challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource extraction, environmental degradation, economic inequity, gender disparity, or authoritarianism.

 

In brief:

 

1) “Applied Hope”: KASL is intended to give life to the “Applied Hope” title of the 2011 UC-Berkeley Commencement Address by Stanford Professor Amory Lovins, including his later description of “Integrative Design.” That talk can be found here.  

 

2) Business case: Each test applicant must ensure the test item is as effective for host-nation poverty relief as it is for capability enhancement. Whatever is tested must be beneficial to the Marshallese as assessed by the Marshallese.

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• The Green Jobs Machine, led by Sharron McPherson, is a KASL Affiliate. The economic design of GJM helps ensure benefits include gender-balanced jobs that pay a living wage within an expanded indigenous economy.

 

3) Doughnut Economics: The economic argument for the idea to be tested should reflect a “Doughnut Economics” design as pioneered by Professor Kate Raworth at Oxford. That means working within the Stockholm boundaries of a social floor and an ecologically responsible ceiling. More here.  

 

4) Greenhouse gas drawdown: Ideas will be prioritized if they reduce or sequester greenhouse gases along the design criteria of the Project Drawdown list. More here.  

 

5) TIPAR methods: Dr. Gregg Nakano, formerly at the University of Hawaii and now senior staff at KASL, has pioneered an efficient and effective method for test performance evaluation by the Marshallese. His design is known as TIPAR, an acronym for Transdisciplinary Intergenerational Participatory Action Research.

 

6) ARISE Framework: The ARISE Framework was developed in John Hummel’s lab at Argonne National Laboratory in the US and has been used in both Nepal and Bangladesh. The acronym stands for “Analysis of Resilience for Integrated System Effectiveness” and is a part of our project resilience evaluation. Dr. Hummel is advising KASL.

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7) The Resilience Index: The complementary assessment provided by the Green Jobs Machine listed above works well with the ARISE framework. Sharron McPherson’s assessment tools enhance and expand what ARISE is designed to do, but specifically in workforce development.

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8) STAR-TIDES: STAR-TIDES is a capability development research program at George Mason University and a KASL affiliate. An earlier publication by one of their principals, "Capability Development through Comprehensive Approaches", provides guidance during idea testing and evaluation. The ongoing STAR-TIDES experience with the Broadband Bootcamp initiative within the Yurok Tribe of Klamath, California, and related efforts in  Puerto Rico by the same team, are contributing to KASL design. More is available here. 

 

8) NISP Integration: Participants will be encouraged to consider how their projects fit within the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme to reduce resource requirements and improve waste management, optimizing value in every step.