Scientists associated with Harwell Gentile & Associates, LC have organized and conducted a large number of workshops.  These have covered tropics from development of conceptual models for a large number of ecosystems, to development of scenarios for ecological risk assessments.  As one example of the latter, we conducted a workshop to develop climate change scenarios for the South Florida regional ecosystem, including examining the processes that control South Florida climate (e.g., the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, ENSO), examining the historical climate record for precipitation in the region, assessing the historical rate of sea-level rise, and evaluating the outputs from general circulation models (e.g., using the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change reports).  A series of scenarios was developed to project the plausible range of climate change and its variability that could be expected for the region in the early, middle, and final decades of the  21st century.  Those scenarios provided one component of the ecological risk assessment conducted on Biscayne Bay and the Everglades.

Our approach to conducting workshops involves working closely with the client agency to develop a focused charge to the workshop participants; identifying appropriate range of expertise needed to address the topic of concern; identify appropriate individuals to serve on workshop panels from academia, private institutions, NGOs, and governmental agencies, with attention to balance and ability to perform in a workshop setting; organizing the workshop, including developing the agenda, inviting presentations, etc.; conducting the workshop, including leading the participants to consensus whenever possible; preparing and finalizing the workshop report; and working with the client agency in understanding and responding to the recommendations and findings of the workshop.