ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN COLLECTIVE

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The Environmental Concern Collective (ECC) is an applied research and action-oriented initiative addressing the accelerating impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in the across the planet. ECC maintains an active operational presence in theUnited Statesof America, and a regional offices in  Kenya, India and the United Kingdomenabling sustained engagement across both Global North and Global South research, policy, and implementation environments.

ECC operates through a diverse pool of international and local experts, bringing together professionals from multiple disciplines, including engineering, political science, climatology, environmental science, sociology, archaeologyand many others. This multidisciplinary structure allows ECC to address climate change not as a singular environmental problem, but as a complex social, political, economic, and historical challenge.

Communities, particularly those in the Global South face the most severe climate risks while possessing the least institutional, financial, and infrastructural capacity to respond. In these contexts, climate change is not a future projection but an immediate and compounding threat to housing, livelihoods, social stability, and cultural continuity.

ECC’s core objective is to generate rigorous, interdisciplinary, community-grounded data that directly informs adaptation planning, risk reduction, and long-term survival strategies.

ECC operates at the intersection of environmental science, social science, and applied design. We recognize that climate vulnerability emerges from the interaction between physical environments and social systems, shaped by governance, history, inequality, and access to resources. Effective adaptation therefore requires integrated analysis rather than sectoral or purely technical interventions.

Our research framework is organized around two interdependent data domains:

• Physical and environmental systems, including ecological, geological, and spatial conditions;
• Social, economic, and governance structures, which shape decision-making, resource access, and adaptive capacity.

This dual framework ensures that climate interventions are locally appropriate, socially viable, and scientifically grounded.

ECC documents and analyzes the physical conditions that structure both climate risk and livelihood systems.  

Our work includes:

• Settlement patterns and built environments, including housing, workshops, public buildings, sacred and cultural sites, and communal spaces;
• Livelihood-supporting landscapes such as agricultural land, fishing grounds, grazing areas, forests, and informal economic zones;
• Broader ecological and geographical settings, including coastal regions, floodplains, arid and semi-arid zones, river valleys, and forest systems.

These factors determine exposure to climate hazards and define the limits and possibilities of adaptation pathways.

At ECC we employ a suite of scientific tools and methods tailored to each research site. These may include remote sensing, drone-based and terrestrial lidar, photographic and video documentation, sonar, ground-penetrating radar, geological coring, and soil and vegetation sampling.

Methodological choices are driven by research questions, community relevance, and decision-making needs rather than technological novelty. This approach ensures scientific rigor while remaining sensitive to cost, scalability, and local technical capacity, which are critical considerations in many contexts such as those found in the Global South.

Understanding climate vulnerability requires careful documentation of how communities organize themselves and make decisions under stress. ECC conducts qualitative and ethnographic research through interviews, observation, and participatory engagement to establish a baseline understanding of social function.

Our areas of analysis include:

• Local governance and decision-making systems, both formal and customary;
• Social stratification, including class, gender, disability, and access to resources;
• Household structures, land tenure systems, and housing arrangements;
• The role of religion, culture, and collective identity;
• Economic systems, particularly informal, subsistence, and climate-sensitive livelihoods.

Historical analysis is integral to our approach at ECC. We examine how communities have responded to past environmental changes, displacement, and external interventions. Where appropriate, archaeological and historical research is conducted to document long-term patterns of settlement, resilience, and non-economic loss.

ECC’s research is explicitly outcome-oriented. By integrating environmental and social data with regional climate projections, we support communities, local governments, and stakeholders in evaluating realistic adaptation pathways.

These pathways typically include:

• IN-SITU ADAPTATION, involving changes to housing, infrastructure, land use, and livelihood strategies; and
• PLANNED RELOCATION, requiring careful site selection, social restructuring, and risk mitigation to prevent further marginalization.

At ECC we aim to facilitate informed, evidence-based dialogue with community leaders and members, ensuring that decisions are proactive rather than crisis-driven.

At ECC, we are not just concerned with documentation for its own sake, but the production of actionable, policy-relevant knowledge. Each project results in a comprehensive, peer-informed publication integrating environmental analysis, social research, and historical context.

Our outputs serve to:

• Provide communities with clear, usable information to guide adaptation decisions;
• Contribute to academic scholarship on climate vulnerability and adaptation in the Global South;
• Inform donors, policymakers, and practitioners seeking evidence-based climate interventions.

We ensure that visual and archival materials photographs, video, and maps are returned to communities as part of preserving cultural and historical knowledge often lost through displacement.

Housing is a critical determinant of climate resilience. Whether communities adapt in place or relocate, the built environment must change.

At ECC we ensure that our research and design explorations are focused on:

• Climate-resilient, low-cost housing systems;
• Settlement layouts that support social cohesion, governance, and economic function;
• Construction approaches that are locally buildable, maintainable, and scalable.

Our work addresses a significant gap in climate adaptation financing, where re-housing and planned relocation are frequently under-resourced or treated as secondary concerns.

Further information on our work in housing and settlement design is available at this website https://redesigningcities.org.  

For donors and climate finance institutions, we offer:

• Evidence-driven, community-accountable adaptation planning;
• Scalable methodologies applicable across diverse regions;
• Clear pathways from research to implementation readiness.

For academic partners, we provide:

• Interdisciplinary field research opportunities across the Global South;
• High-quality empirical data from underrepresented and high-risk contexts;
• Applied research that bridges theory, policy, and practice.

ECC positions itself as a collaborative platform linking research institutions, funding bodies, and frontline communities in responding to climate change across the Global South.

Ronald E. Wanda,

Director, Research and Operations