Lilian Alessa
Biographic Data
| ID | 640105 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lilian Alessa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lilian |
| FAMILY NAME | Alessa |
| SIGNATURE | ALESSA L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Idaho |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6564-4518 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Special Section
The concepts of strategic competition and tactics that fall short of all-out conflict—often referred to as the gray zone—are as old as human history. While military theory, study, and practice sinc
Surprise and Suspense
This paper examines the challenges faced by the U.S. intelligence community (IC) in recognizing and responding to the elements inherent in asymmetric competition with China. We offer that cultural and procedural impediments are negatively impacting the community’s capabilities and argue that reliance on outdated methodologies and ad hoc technology acquisition to detect activities specific to asymmetric competition has allowed adversaries to explo…
Transforming sustainability science for practice
Planning for Idaho’s waterscapes
Water availability and use are increasingly critical factors determining the resilience and vulnerability of communities in the Western United States (US). Historical water availability and use in the state of Idaho is synthesized by considering the biophysical drivers of climate and surface runoff alongside human drivers of land-use, hydrologic engineering and state water management and policies. Idaho has not experienced chronic water scarcity …
The role of perceptions versus instrumented data of environmental change
Themes in community resilience
To address socioeconomic challenges in rural Idaho, some communities have participated in a community review process through Idaho Rural Partnership’s Community Review program. To understand patterns and trends in perceptions of local assets and challenges, we used a mixed-methods approach, including aggregation and statistical analysis of survey data collected over the course of 15 years, and qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions, …
A social-ecological systems approach for environmental management
Role of perception in determining adaptive capacity
A science of integration
The Contributions of Community-Based Monitoring and Traditional Knowledge to Arctic Observing Networks
Community-based monitoring (CBM) in the Arctic is gaining increasing support from a wide range of interested parties, including community members, scientists, government agencies, and funders. Through CBM initiatives, Arctic residents conduct or are involved in ongoing observing and monitoring activities. Arctic Indigenous peoples have been observing the environment for millennia, and CBM often incorporates traditional knowledge, which may be use…
The role of Indigenous science and local knowledge in integrated observing systems
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Agriculture is a severely underdeveloped industry in Alaska and throughout most of the Subarctic. Growers and entrepreneurs must overcome a diverse set of challenges to achieve greater sustainability in northern communities where resilience is threatened by food insecurity and challenges to northern agriculture have limited the industry. However, several field-based or social policy solutions to problems of high-latitude agriculture have been pro…
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Local agriculture, food security and food supply are limited in Alaska, as well as in much of the circumpolar North. These limitations stem from a suite of challenges that have never been well characterized, categorized, or wholly defined. We identify these challenges as being environmental, geophysical, biological, or socioeconomic in nature, noting that some challenges are interrelated. Additionally, Alaska is expansive, and growing conditions …
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Alaska is food insecure, importing the vast majority of its agricultural products and commodities and maintaining a minimal year-round food supply. Much of the circumpolar North, with some notable exceptions, is also food insecure and similarly reliant on foods imported from outside regions. The stark differences in food policies, food security, and overall production that exist between individual countries and regions of the circumpolar North ar…
Walrus harvest locations reflect adaptation
The Bering Sea Sub-Network, a Community-Based Observation Network, was initiated to improve knowledge of environmental changes occurring in the Bering Sea and to enable scientists, Arctic communities and governments to predict, plan and respond. Climate change can affect the health of the social-ecological system of Indigenous communities through negative effects to travel and changes to biological resources used for subsistence. Harvesters are p…
Integrating complexity in the management of human-wildlife encounters
The Rotten Renaissance in the Bering Strait
Situated in the Bering Strait region of Russia and Alaska, the ethnographic documentation presented here elucidates the role of the olfactory aesthetic in shaping human attitudes toward food. The focus is on the practices connected with the use of marine mammal products and recipes prepared by means of aging and fermentation. Since recent times, the olfactory responses to these historically important foods have been changing to where their smell …
The Role of Agent Types in Detecting and Responding to Environmental Change
Individuals have distinct roles within communities in the development of adaptive responses to environmental change. We articulate the phenomenon of different roles, or agent types, that people take in initiating, supporting, or opposing collective organization in remote, resource dependent communities. Based on both participant observations and interviews in Seward Peninsula communities, we categorize agents into three broad types: initiators or…
Assessing the Impacts of Local Knowledge and Technology on Climate Change Vulnerability in Remote Communities
The introduction of new technologies into small remote communities can alter how individuals acquire knowledge about their surrounding environment. This is especially true when technologies that satisfy basic needs, such as freshwater use, create a distance (i.e., diminishing exposure) between individuals and their environment. However, such distancing can potentially be countered by the transfer of local knowledge between community members and f…
The Integration of Digital Terrain Visualization in Ethnography
New advances in spatial technology enable ethnographic data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to be integrated in innovative ways. These include mapping and virtual reconstruction of buildings no longer standing, of routes used for transportation and hunting, and other spatial ethnographic data, visualized in three dimensions (3D). Representation in 3D allows for a more complete understanding of landscape relationships, and can be used as …
Social Influence and Decision-Making
This paper presents a model, using concepts from artificial neural networks, that explains how small rural communities make decisions that affect access to potable freshwater. Field observations indicate that social relationships as well as individual goals and perceptions of decision makers have a strong influence on decisions that are made by community councils. Our work identifies three types of agents, which we designate as alpha, beta, and g…
Forgetting Freshwater
Technology is often touted as a collective solution to environmental problems. However, what if technology results in trade-offs in long-term resilience that ultimately pose a critical vulnerability for society? In this study, we examine the change in values of freshwater from traditional to convenience-oriented values in remote, resource-dependent communities that are in the process of modernization. Individuals living in remote resource-depende…
Livelihoods on Thawing Ground
A Framework to Structure Agent-Based Modeling Data for Social-Ecological Systems
Agent-based models (ABMs), perhaps used along with other methods, are increasingly being applied to address problems involving social-ecological systems (SES). However, systematic and standardized techniques for organizing data requirements and collecting information for such models are generally not applied. Defining the types of data that need to be collected is a critical step in instantiating relevant models and detailing behavioral patterns.…
Social–ecological hotspots mapping
The Rotten Renaissance in the Bering Strait
Situated in the Bering Strait region of Russia and Alaska, the ethnographic documentation presented here elucidates the role of the olfactory aesthetic in shaping human attitudes toward food. The focus is on the practices connected with the use of marine mammal products and recipes prepared by means of aging and fermentation. Since recent times, the olfactory responses to these historically important foods have been changing to where their smell …
Perception of change in freshwater in remote resource-dependent Arctic communities
Forgetting Freshwater
Technology is often touted as a collective solution to environmental problems. However, what if technology results in trade-offs in long-term resilience that ultimately pose a critical vulnerability for society? In this study, we examine the change in values of freshwater from traditional to convenience-oriented values in remote, resource-dependent communities that are in the process of modernization. Individuals living in remote resource-depende…
Freshwater vulnerabilities and resilience on the Seward Peninsula
The role of Indigenous science and local knowledge in integrated observing systems
Role of perception in determining adaptive capacity
A Framework to Structure Agent-Based Modeling Data for Social-Ecological Systems
Agent-based models (ABMs), perhaps used along with other methods, are increasingly being applied to address problems involving social-ecological systems (SES). However, systematic and standardized techniques for organizing data requirements and collecting information for such models are generally not applied. Defining the types of data that need to be collected is a critical step in instantiating relevant models and detailing behavioral patterns.…
Themes in community resilience
To address socioeconomic challenges in rural Idaho, some communities have participated in a community review process through Idaho Rural Partnership’s Community Review program. To understand patterns and trends in perceptions of local assets and challenges, we used a mixed-methods approach, including aggregation and statistical analysis of survey data collected over the course of 15 years, and qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions, …
A science of integration
Livelihoods on Thawing Ground
The role of perceptions versus instrumented data of environmental change
Integrating complexity in the management of human-wildlife encounters
The Relationship between Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Evolving Cultures, and Wilderness Protection in the Circumpolar North
Watson, A., L. Alessa and B. Glaspell 2003. The relationship between traditional ecological knowledge, evolving cultures, and wilderness protection in the circumpolar north. Conservation Ecology 8(1): 2. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00589-080102
Timescapes of Community Resilience and Vulnerability in the Circumpolar North
Historical relationships between people and a changing Arctic environment (which constitute a social-ecological system, or SES) can offer insights for management that promote both social and ecological resilience. The continued existence of healthy renewable resources around communities is particularly important, as subsistence and commercial use of local resources are often the only practical avenues to healthy, long-term security for those comm…
The distancing effect of modernization on the perception of water resources in Arctic communities
This paper provides empirical evidence to suggest that modernization, and its resulting infrastructure, creates a filter which distances people from the resources they use. The data presented suggest that installation of a municipal water supply, piped water to residences, affects a community's ability to perceive change in surrounding water sources. Since individual perceptions and values are instrumental in determining whether or not change mer…
Social–ecological hotspots mapping
Perception of change in freshwater in remote resource-dependent Arctic communities
Freshwater vulnerabilities and resilience on the Seward Peninsula
Social Influence and Decision-Making
This paper presents a model, using concepts from artificial neural networks, that explains how small rural communities make decisions that affect access to potable freshwater. Field observations indicate that social relationships as well as individual goals and perceptions of decision makers have a strong influence on decisions that are made by community councils. Our work identifies three types of agents, which we designate as alpha, beta, and g…
Forgetting Freshwater
Technology is often touted as a collective solution to environmental problems. However, what if technology results in trade-offs in long-term resilience that ultimately pose a critical vulnerability for society? In this study, we examine the change in values of freshwater from traditional to convenience-oriented values in remote, resource-dependent communities that are in the process of modernization. Individuals living in remote resource-depende…
Livelihoods on Thawing Ground
A Framework to Structure Agent-Based Modeling Data for Social-Ecological Systems
Agent-based models (ABMs), perhaps used along with other methods, are increasingly being applied to address problems involving social-ecological systems (SES). However, systematic and standardized techniques for organizing data requirements and collecting information for such models are generally not applied. Defining the types of data that need to be collected is a critical step in instantiating relevant models and detailing behavioral patterns.…
Assessing the Impacts of Local Knowledge and Technology on Climate Change Vulnerability in Remote Communities
The introduction of new technologies into small remote communities can alter how individuals acquire knowledge about their surrounding environment. This is especially true when technologies that satisfy basic needs, such as freshwater use, create a distance (i.e., diminishing exposure) between individuals and their environment. However, such distancing can potentially be countered by the transfer of local knowledge between community members and f…
The Integration of Digital Terrain Visualization in Ethnography
New advances in spatial technology enable ethnographic data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to be integrated in innovative ways. These include mapping and virtual reconstruction of buildings no longer standing, of routes used for transportation and hunting, and other spatial ethnographic data, visualized in three dimensions (3D). Representation in 3D allows for a more complete understanding of landscape relationships, and can be used as …
The Role of Agent Types in Detecting and Responding to Environmental Change
Individuals have distinct roles within communities in the development of adaptive responses to environmental change. We articulate the phenomenon of different roles, or agent types, that people take in initiating, supporting, or opposing collective organization in remote, resource dependent communities. Based on both participant observations and interviews in Seward Peninsula communities, we categorize agents into three broad types: initiators or…
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Agriculture is a severely underdeveloped industry in Alaska and throughout most of the Subarctic. Growers and entrepreneurs must overcome a diverse set of challenges to achieve greater sustainability in northern communities where resilience is threatened by food insecurity and challenges to northern agriculture have limited the industry. However, several field-based or social policy solutions to problems of high-latitude agriculture have been pro…
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Local agriculture, food security and food supply are limited in Alaska, as well as in much of the circumpolar North. These limitations stem from a suite of challenges that have never been well characterized, categorized, or wholly defined. We identify these challenges as being environmental, geophysical, biological, or socioeconomic in nature, noting that some challenges are interrelated. Additionally, Alaska is expansive, and growing conditions …
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North
Alaska is food insecure, importing the vast majority of its agricultural products and commodities and maintaining a minimal year-round food supply. Much of the circumpolar North, with some notable exceptions, is also food insecure and similarly reliant on foods imported from outside regions. The stark differences in food policies, food security, and overall production that exist between individual countries and regions of the circumpolar North ar…
Walrus harvest locations reflect adaptation
The Bering Sea Sub-Network, a Community-Based Observation Network, was initiated to improve knowledge of environmental changes occurring in the Bering Sea and to enable scientists, Arctic communities and governments to predict, plan and respond. Climate change can affect the health of the social-ecological system of Indigenous communities through negative effects to travel and changes to biological resources used for subsistence. Harvesters are p…
Integrating complexity in the management of human-wildlife encounters
The Rotten Renaissance in the Bering Strait
Situated in the Bering Strait region of Russia and Alaska, the ethnographic documentation presented here elucidates the role of the olfactory aesthetic in shaping human attitudes toward food. The focus is on the practices connected with the use of marine mammal products and recipes prepared by means of aging and fermentation. Since recent times, the olfactory responses to these historically important foods have been changing to where their smell …
The Contributions of Community-Based Monitoring and Traditional Knowledge to Arctic Observing Networks
Community-based monitoring (CBM) in the Arctic is gaining increasing support from a wide range of interested parties, including community members, scientists, government agencies, and funders. Through CBM initiatives, Arctic residents conduct or are involved in ongoing observing and monitoring activities. Arctic Indigenous peoples have been observing the environment for millennia, and CBM often incorporates traditional knowledge, which may be use…
The role of Indigenous science and local knowledge in integrated observing systems
A social-ecological systems approach for environmental management
Role of perception in determining adaptive capacity
A science of integration
Themes in community resilience
To address socioeconomic challenges in rural Idaho, some communities have participated in a community review process through Idaho Rural Partnership’s Community Review program. To understand patterns and trends in perceptions of local assets and challenges, we used a mixed-methods approach, including aggregation and statistical analysis of survey data collected over the course of 15 years, and qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions, …
Environmental resource management (22 works) · Geography (20 works) · Ecology (19 works) · Environmental Science (14 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (14 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Climate change (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychology (9 works)