SSI Partner Institutions
Colby College is one of 11 institutions of higher learning in Maine collaborating on the SSI project. This unprecedented partnership helps support sustainability science research at undergraduate colleges and universities around the state. It also gives students opportunities to work with interdisciplinary research teams led by faculty from a wide range of fields.
Students are key collaborators on all research teams. As part of the Colby team, environmental policy and economics major Sophie Sarkar wrote her senior thesis on the conservation behavior of residents in the Belgrade Lakes Watershed, with the guidance of Philip Nyhus, Colby associate professor of environmental studies.
Sarkar told the Colby Echo that her thesis focused on “the knowledge and economic variables to determine how and why people value the lakes on which they live, including their willingness to pay for improved lake water quality.”
Such research, which will contribute to the understanding of social and economic issues surrounding water quality, is just one example of integrated educational activities led by partner institutions.
Click here for map of projects and partner institutions.
Project List
Bates College, Bowdoin College, University of Southern Maine
Ecological and Economic Recovery and Sustainability of the Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers, Estuary and Nearshore Environment
Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers and Estuary
Colby College
Modeling Resilience and Adaptation in the Belgrade Lakes Watershed
Belgrade Lakes Watershed
University of New England
Sustaining Quality of Place in the Saco River Estuary through Community Based Ecosystem Management
Saco River Estuary
Unity College
Understanding the Relationships among Biodiversity, Forest Management, and Invasive Species Disturbance in a Forested New England Landscape
Southern & Central Maine
University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI)
Modeling evolving ecological, cultural, and economic systems of the Aroostook River watershed of northern Maine for sustainable development (Planning Grant)
Aroostook River Watershed
University of Maine at Farmington (UMF)
Planning for Watershed-based Sustainable Development: Bridging the Belgrade and Rangeley Lakes Regions
Belgrade & Rangeley Lakes Regions
University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK)
Biomass Energy Resources in the St. John Valley, Aroostook County, Maine: Development Potential, Landscape Implications, and Replication Possibilities
St. John Valley
UMaine and USM Projects
Protecting Natural Resources at the Community Scale: Using population persistence of vernal pool fauna as a model system to study urbanization, climate change and forest management
Statewide
Sustainable Urban Regions Project (SURP)
Portland and Bangor
Safeguarding a Vulnerable Watershed
Sebago Lake Watershed
Ecological and Social Change: Adaptation, Place and Evaluation (ESCAPE)
Statewide
The Knowledge-to-Action Collaborative
Statewide
Mapping a Sustainable Future
Lower Penobscot River Watershed
Adaptation Strategies in a Changing Climate: Maine’s Coastal Communities and the Statewide Stakeholder Process
Coastal Maine
Mobilizing to Fight an Invasive Insect
Statewide
Renewable Energy from the Tides
Down East Maine
Effects of Climate Change on Organisms (ECCO)
Statewide
Integration Projects
Lessons from a Diverse Portfolio: Building Applicable Knowledge Through a Multi-Method Framework for Coupled-Systems Research
An SSI Cyber-Informatics Development Plan
Application of an Integrative Decision Support Tool and Spatial Modeling to Assess the Implications of Future Growth Scenarios on Sensitive Aquatic Resources in Maine
Building Capacity and Coherence: Integration of Socio-Economic Data Collection
SES Synergy: Finding and Applying Best Practices in Socio-ecological Systems Modeling and Outreach
