The Deep Listening Project: Communication infrastructure for collaborative adaptation

To achieve successful and equitable climate adaptation, government and intergovernmental institutions must collaborate with frontline and Indigenous communities. However, these communities lack the mechanisms and institutional support to communicate well with institutions, and institutions lack the capacity to integrate communities’ values and experiences into decision-making scenarios. The Deep Listening Project (TDLP) is a multidisciplinary, multi-university effort to create a sustainable communication infrastructure for collaborative adaptation. Together with communities and institutions, TDLP will co-design tools and procedures that emphasize the human and holistic environmental dimensions of adaptation while using artificial intelligence and decision-support technologies to enable institutions to “deeply listen” to Indigenous and frontline communities. Through eight case studies, we will engage in collaborative research, design, and practice to create artifacts that can shift the global adaptation paradigm.