MEDEA : Mapping environmental debates on adaptation

The aim of the project MEDEA is to use digital mapping tools to try and trace the provenance and pivot points in these debates within different institutional settings. We look principally at the construction of scientific expertise in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the evolution of adaptation as an issue within the international negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We also have a separate case study that follows regional deliberations on climate impacts and water management in the southwest of France. This website presents the results from the first two investigations of this ANR funded project, which was was made possible by a joint collaboration between social and data scientists (Sciences Po, médialab), climate scientists (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement) and designers (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs). Experimental in its combination of disciplines and digital data methods, our mapping activities attempt to make legible to a non-expert public the institutional and topical transformations within the leading scientific and political arenas of the climate debate.