MPA-ESP Students Present Their Fall Final Briefings

On Wednesday, November 19th, the students from the MPA program in Environmental Science and Policy presented their final briefings for the workshop in Applied Earth Systems Management.  The workshop final briefings are the culmination of semester-long projects on a proposed but not yet enacted environmental law or treaty with an emphasis on management issues. During the fall semester, these projects focus on the operational design of the program and the management issues central to program implementation.  During this management simulation, students learn first-hand, the importance of both interpersonal relations and strategic thinking to the process of completing projects in an effective manner. Fall Workshops are a continuation of their summer workshop projects, in which they focused on the scientific aspects behind these same environmental laws and agreements.

Projects this semester covered a range of topics including energy, global warming wildlife adaptation, and water resource management. Four faculty members advised the workshops this semester: Kathy Callahan, Steve Cohen, Tanya Heikkila, and Andrea Schmitz.  Kathy Callahan, who recently stepped down from her position as the EPA Deputy Regional Administrator of Region 2, worked with the workshop group that examined a water commission act for the twenty-first century.  Steve Cohen, Director of the MPA-ESP program and Executive Director of the Earth Institute, advised the team looking at climate change adaptation.  Tanya Heikkila, the Associate Director of the Earth Institute's Water Center and an Assistant Professor at SIPA, has advised the team addressing water resource management in Coastal Louisiana ecosystems and the team focusing on wildlife adaptation to global warming.  Andrea Schmitz, Director of Environment, Health, and Safety at ConEdison, has worked with the team examining solar energy research. 

Following the completion of these fall workshops, the spring semester for the MPA program brings actual clients into the workshops. Working off of the foundational knowledge already established in the fall semester, the spring workshops aim to introduce the students to a new level of professional work while incorporating the students' research from the past two semesters.  Below are summaries of the workshop projects that were completed this fall.

S. 2728 Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of 2008
Professor Kathleen Callahan
Kathleen Callahan led the fall workshop group that dealt with the Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of 2008.  This act proposes to establish a commission to develop a national water strategy that will address water quality and quantity issues that the United States faces and will face over the next 50 years.  At the final briefing, the group reviewed their discussion from the midterm briefing on how the committee will aggregate information using existing studies, assessments, and regional hearings to achieve the goals of the commission.  The team's presentation also outlined the goals, activities, and actions involved in this process, such as creating an organizational structure, conducting research, and tracking the progress of this research and hearings.  The team outlined both a first-year plan and five-year plan that included establishing a strong staff in the short term and reporting on research and conducting regional hearings in the long term.  Since the midterm briefing, Professor Callahan's group continued to work on the organizational, contracting, and staffing plan.

S 2355 The Climate Change Adaptation Act
Faculty Advisor: Steven Cohen
This fall's Climate Change Adaptation Act workshop, led by the Director of the MPA-ESP program Steve Cohen, addressed the government policy, procedure, and urgency in addressing climate change on coastlines.  The team aimed to create an operational plan that will reduce the vulnerability to climate change in the U.S. The workshop group outlined its expected results at the midterm briefing: to establish new and more effective procedures to periodically assess risks from climate change; to incorporate adaptation to climate change into the planning, management, and organization of the public and private sectors; and to carefully monitor results from these assessments and adaptations.  In the final weeks of the workshop, the group took steps to define the organization, contracting, and staffing plan as well as design the process of performance management.  The cohort also spent time creating a budget and revenue as well as a cohesive master calendar to effectively apply the Climate Change Adaptation Act to the private and public sectors of vulnerable zones.

Title VII of the Water Resources Development Act:
Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration
Professor Heikkila
Professor Heikkila also led the fall workshop on the Title VII of the Water Resources Development Act: Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration. The legislative goals of the act are to protect and restore the Louisiana coastal ecosystem while minimizing infrastructure and economic damage from storming and flooding.  The legislative mandate on which the group focused is the Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, for which the group created operational and staffing plans.  Professor Heikkila's group analyzed the politics behind the protection that this task force seeks to implement.  The group outlined objectives to balance protection and restoration and to strengthen assessment systems.  The group spent the final weeks of the workshop focusing on contracting and staffing, creating a master calendar, and planning the act's budget and revenues.

S.2204 Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act
Faculty Advisor: Tanya Heikkila
The Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act workshop group, led by Tanya Heikkila this semester, continued to create a management plan to establish the national strategy for facilitating the adaptation of wildlife populations and habitats to the impact of global warming that the act proposes.  The fall workshop group researched and worked on topics surrounding the bill.  The goals of the bill center on imperiled species. They include: enhancing the monitoring of current and prospective programs, guiding restorative efforts with its newly established advisory board, establishing corridors for wildlife, reducing threats that are not related to climate, and improving wildlife management. The group focused the design of its management plan on the ability of certain options to fulfill criteria such as administrative efficiency and data collection.  The Workshop cohort also compared multiple operational plan options.  In the final weeks, the group worked to develop a contracting and staffing plan and created a budget.

H.R.2774 Solar Energy Research and Advancement Act of 2007
Faculty Advisor:  Andrea Schmitz
The Solar Energy Research and Advancement Act of 2007 workshop group, led by Andrea Schmitz, explored  the problems with current energy resources such as coal. The group researched issues such as exposure to heavy metals and run-off from mines and air-polluting emissions of coal burning energy plants. The bill proposes an alternative to coal and other pollution emitting energy sources.  Since the summer briefings, the workshop group worked to analyze the proposed solution of solar energy and focused on the marketing and technical issues that will play a part in their finalized operational plan.  The group has worked on an operational design for this act and developed an operational plan to increase investor confidence and decentralize the market. In the final weeks of the workshop, the group has worked to develop a contracting and staffing plan with a budget.

To view the archives of Workshop Final Briefings, presentations, and reports, please go to www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment/pages/wksp.html. For more information on the MPA-ESP program, please contact Louise Rosen, Associate Director of the MPA-ESP Program at 212.854.3142 or via email at lar46@columbia.edu.