Adaptable and comprehensive vulnerability assessments for water resources systems in a rapidly changing world.

Comprehensive and adaptive approaches to vulnerability assessment are crucial for guiding effective adaptation in global water resources systems. A common approach to quantify vulnerability is through indicators, which capture the 'spirit of vulnerability' while retaining practical ease-of-use benefits. However, a comprehensive meta-analysis of reveals two specific limitations of global indicator-based vulnerability assessments for water resources systems: 1) vulnerability is influenced by complex interactions among multi-domain factors, for which indicator quality and data vary; and 2) vulnerability is dynamic and evolves over time, an aspect overlooked in most approaches. In response to these identified challenges, we propose a new dynamic "build-your-own" approach to vulnerability assessment. Our approach focuses on correcting for the identified gaps and biases in indicators and data to improve assessment comprehensiveness. This approach also incorporates guidance around adapting assessments over time to better reflect vulnerability under changing conditions. The open-source nature of our approach and underlying data can facilitate the development and customization of indicator-based vulnerability assessments for diverse applications, supporting practical and relevant planning for more resilient water resources systems.

Visual policy narrative messaging improves COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

In the face of vaccine hesitancy, public health officials are seeking more effective risk communication approaches to increase vaccination rates. We test the influence of visual policy narratives on COVID-19 vaccination behavior through a panel survey experiment conducted in early 2021 (n = 3,900) and then 8 weeks later (n = 2,268). We examine the effects of three visual policy narrative messages that test the narrative mechanism of character selection (yourself, your circle, and your community) and a nonnarrative control on COVID-19 vaccine behavior. Visual risk messages that use narratives positively influence COVID-19 vaccination through serial mediation of affective response to the messages and motivation to get the COVID-19 vaccination. Additionally, character selection matters, as messages focusing on protecting others (i.e. your circle and your community) perform stronger than those of yourself. Political ideology moderated some of the effects, with conservative respondents in the nonnarrative control condition having a higher probability of vaccination in comparison to the protect yourself condition. Taken together, these results suggest that public health officials should use narrative-based visual communication messages that emphasize communal benefits of vaccinations.

Building Resilience during Recovery: Lessons from Colorado's Watershed Resilience Pilot Program.

As the potential for and scope of some types of disasters increases, so too does the need to build greater disaster resilience across the globe. Communities ideally begin building resilience prior to experiencing a disaster in order to reduce negative impacts and ease recovery processes; however, numerous environmental and sociopolitical factors can impede such efforts until a disaster occurs. While the disaster recovery period offers opportunities for communities to build resilience as they replace infrastructure and restore services, a host of new issues arise during this time that can further complicate or delay resilience building. In this study, we highlight the opportunities and challenges inherent at the intersection of disaster recovery and resilience building, which we term the "recovery-resilience nexus." To study this nexus, we analyze a first-of-its-kind disaster recovery program in Colorado, United States, that promotes resilience-building activities in disaster-affected communities by supporting the efforts of place-based watershed coalitions. Although the program faced numerous and interrelated technical, political, and fiscal hurdles, we argue that it provides an opportunity for drawing important lessons about how communities can navigate the recovery-resilience nexus via cross-boundary collaboration and creatively leveraging traditional disaster recovery funding sources to achieve resilience goals.