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Supporting sustainability initiatives through biometeorology education and training

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 61, pages 93–106 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) has covered significant breadth and depth addressing fundamental and applied societal and environmental challenges in the last 60 years. Biometeorology is an interdisciplinary science connecting living organisms to their environment, but there is very little understanding of the existence and placement of this discipline within formal educational systems and institutions. It is thus difficult to project the ability of members of the biometeorological community—especially the biometeorologists of the future—to help solve global challenges. In this paper, we ask: At present, how we are training people to understand and think about biometeorology? We also ask: What are the current tools and opportunities in which biometeorologists might address future challenges? Finally, we connect these two questions by asking: What type of new training and skill development is needed to better educate “biometeorologists of the future” to more effectively address the future challenges? To answer these questions, we provide quantitative and qualitative evidence from an educationally focused workshop attended by new professionals in biometeorology. We identify four common themes (thermal comfort and exposures, agricultural productivity, air quality, and urbanization) that biometeorologists are currently studying and that we expect to be important in the future based on their alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Review of recent literature within each of these thematic areas highlights a wide array of skill sets and perspectives that biometeorologists are already using. Current and new professionals within the ISB have noted highly varying and largely improvised educational pathways into the field. While variability and improvisation may be assets in promoting flexibility, adaptation, and interdisciplinarity, the lack of formal training in biometeorology raises concerns about the extent to which continuing generations of scholars will identify and engage with the community of scholarship that the ISB has developed over its 60-year history.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the International Society of Biometeorology and Tromp Foundation for funding the 2nd Student and New Professional Workshop Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Biometeorology in Higher Education. Special thanks to Dr. Scott Sheridan for his mentorship and insight into the discipline and Dr. Francis Adams, Dr. Emily Eddins, and the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters for onsite support. The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Geography, Old Dominion University, 7035 Batten Arts and Letters, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Michael J. Allen

  2. Climate, Atmospheric Science, and Physical Oceanography Department Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, San Diego, USA

    Jennifer Vanos

  3. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, UC San Diego, San Diego, USA

    Jennifer Vanos

  4. School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    David M. Hondula

  5. Climate Science Lab, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, Texas, , College Station, TX, USA

    Daniel J. Vecellio

  6. Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    David Knight

  7. Department of Geo-Information Processing, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Hamed Mehdipoor

  8. School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Rebekah Lucas

  9. Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA

    Chris Fuhrmann

  10. Climatology Group, Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Hanna Lokys

  11. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Animal Science Group, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD, Australia

    Angela Lees

  12. Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, University of Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Sheila Tavares Nascimento

  13. Climate Laboratory, Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrew C. W. Leung

  14. Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David R. Perkins IV

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  1. Michael J. Allen
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  2. Jennifer Vanos
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  3. David M. Hondula
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  9. Hanna Lokys
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  13. David R. Perkins IV
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Correspondence to Michael J. Allen.

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Allen, M.J., Vanos, J., Hondula, D.M. et al. Supporting sustainability initiatives through biometeorology education and training. Int J Biometeorol 61 (Suppl 1), 93–106 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1408-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1408-z

Keywords

  • Biometeorology
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Education
  • Sustainable Development Goals