Let me begin by plainly stating what I do, something I hinted at in my first blog, “The Ethical Disclosure that Begins this Story.” In the past year I deepened relations in my geographically focused area of investigation, Barrio Playa in the Municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. My energies, as an embedded researcher, is on placed-based human adaptation to hazards, land uses, community livability, and the role of contemporary and historic policy and power-relations in increasing vulnerability.
Behind this tidy job description is the nitty gritty of collaborations, listening, and building relationships within communities historically left out of planning conversations.
Unlike traditional, extractive models of research that treat communities as “subjects” or sources of data, embedded research is an emergent research form (Ward, n.d.) that integrates a researcher in a non-academic setting (Embedded Research Project, n.d). It puts the researcher inside the everyday workings of organizations and communities. Frequent physical presence and expressions of reciprocity and relevance are part of the embedding process. Researchers in this model don’t just observe from a distance; they participate in supporting positive change through research tied to action, responsive to the community’s priorities.
This method is not new in public health and education fields where embedded researchers have long played vital roles in generating insider perspectives that reveal why things work, or don’t (Embedded Research Project, n.d). However, the approach is still underutilized in fields like environmental planning and hazard mitigation where “objectivity” and technocratic knowledge is prized over lived experience (Taylor et al., 2021).
As feminist scholar Donna Haraway reminds us, scientific knowledge has long claimed the “view from nowhere,” an impossible, supposedly bias-free stance. Embedded research rejects that illusion. Instead, it works to span transdisciplinary boundaries through “trust-based relationships; collaborative agenda-setting and combining different knowledges; promoting reflexivity and innovation; and navigating multiple accountabilities” (Taylor et al., 2021). The approach produces meaningful research grounded in the questions and realities of those wanting transformative possibilities. As such, among the three broad element of embedded research are 10 common features/themes, as illustrated in the framework, below.
Caption: Embedded Research Framework with the Community-based Organization, Un Nuevo Amanecer, Inc., adapted from Ward et al., 2021, p. 599 table 3.
Embedded in Barrio Playa, at the Invitation of the Community
In my own work, embedded research means intentionally becoming part of the fabric of social institutions and grassroots initiatives in Barrio Playa, Ponce. My presence here is not incidental, it’s invited, frequent, and physical. I work alongside neighbors to ensure knowledge, histories, and aspirations are identified and centered in decisions that will shape their future. The work requires reflexivity and continual examination of one’s own positionality. The research questions emerge not from academic trends but from a grounded approach (Creswell) through conversations with residents, dialogues with UNA’s board, and the lived dynamics of place.
In a historically oppressed community like Playa, this isn’t neutral work. What has emerged is a desire to confront the legacies of U.S. colonialism and local elite control that have long dictated whose voices count––and don’t count––in planning processes. There is ample evidence from historic documents about USACE and HUD’s influence in displacing Playa residents since 1980. Aerial photos document spatial transformations across time, including neighborhood erasure, decimation of wetlands, and port expansion. When I began information conversation about places bulldozed into history, memories emerged that speak to state violence.
Because my work increasingly spans the natural, physical and social sciences, producing new knowledge blending various forms of data with dialogue, and technical analysis with community knowledge. In the past year, community data has driven and justified funding proposals and request for scientific experts.
While I continue to don the hat of the embedded researcher, I have become the Principal Investigator (PI) on multiple interdisciplinary project’s hosted by Un Nuevo Amanecer (UNA), the CBO that invited me to join the board and serve as an advisor. Taylor et al.’s 2021 case studies of embedded adaptation researchers in the African cities of Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique), Windhoek (Namibia), Harare (Zimbabwe), Durban and Cape Town (South Africa) noted that embedded researchers are instrumental in helping fellow transdisciplinary researchers better understand and navigate the complex landscape of policy and practice. I can attest to this reality from present and past initiatives in Playa.
Projects Rooted in Place and Practice
Every project I lead reflects this commitment to integration, interdisciplinary methods, and participatory research.
La Matilde River flood and heat mitigation project
In 2024, community data on flood patterns and space abandonment, as well as informal conversations, and site tours with neighbors selected a La Matilde River site on the western border of the barrio for flood and heat mitigation.As the PI, I coordinated with structural engineers, landscape experts, the Municipal planner, and community members. We sought to answer these questions: Where would flood control efforts rooted in nature-based solutions be best sited? What ecosystem services and passive recreation would the community want at these sites? Answering those questions led to research-driven planning processes that produced a conceptual design for a green infrastructure solution on public land. When built, the project will increase river access, provide shade during blistering Puerto Rico summers, absorb immense quantities of water, reduce the heat-island effect, enhance habitat for non-human lives, and redirect flood waters.
As the funding landscape changes, we hope to embark on the La Matilde River project’s next phase: scientific technical assessments, continued community engagement that supports technical design, permits, and breaking ground. My role as PI in this setting reflects the emerging model as embedded researcher among interdisciplinary scientists, facilitating the participatory process, and ensuring the resulting plan is community-led and evidence-based.
Caption: Conceptual designs for the La Matilde River adaptation project. Consulting team from Climate Resilient Consulting with public funding.
VIDA Costera (Coastal Life)
UNA’s VIDA Costera project is asking a deceptively simple question: Where are the viable sites for coastal and marine habitat restoration in Ponce Bay? To answer, we draw on interdisciplinary experts and data on ecological systems, marine science, and crucially, the lived expertise of Playa residents. As PI, I work in collaboration with a health and environmental scientist, a planner, a communications lead steeped in coastal community planning, a coalition of experts, and most importantly, local leaders, and residents to produce actionable, community-supported outcomes. We are setting the stage for additional research to assess sites, analyze ROI, and move discretely fundable habitat restoration concepts towards their realization. The outcome should restore habitat for fish and wildlife that also protects the coastal barrio’s settlements from erosion and sea surges.
Caption: Workshop to coproduce a trauma-informed group working agreement for VIDA Costera’s cohort of residents.
LUCES para La Playa (Electricity for the Beach)
LUCES para la Playa is an interdisciplinary, community-driven research project that addresses the urgent need for practical renewable energy solutions in Barrio Playa, Ponce; one that reflects the lived realities of elderly residents confronting extreme heat and chronic energy blackouts. Sponsored by Un Nuevo Amanecer, community members, and renewable energy scientists, the project responds to a cascading set of challenges: chronic flooding, coastal erosion, home abandonment, dangerous heat waves, and compounding energy vulnerabilities. The neighborhood’s 30-year flood risk ranks in the 87th percentile of U.S. census tracts. The spatial distribution of 170 abandoned properties correlates to some degree with repeated inundation. For the Barrio’s seven highly socially vulnerable neighborhoods, the stakes are high. In 2023, Ponce endured an unprecedented number of heat index days over 105°F, putting the barrio’s elderly, who are 25% of the population, at severe risk during frequent power outages.
LUCES para la Playa combines data-driven analysis of demographics, energy consumption patterns, and infrastructure vulnerabilities with qualitative insights from residents to co-create renewable energy solutions to the barrio’s most pressing energy issues. In a context where sky-high energy costs, aging infrastructure, and inaccessible solar incentives leave neighbors with few options, the research project should illuminate a plan for community-scale energy resilience; one that prioritizes collective wellbeing over privatized or individualized fixes.
Flier promoting community participation in resilient energy research.
The projects I’ve described are not isolated studies. They are part of a larger, living practice of supporting adaptation through knowledge co-production. Whether it’s mapping habitat restoration opportunities, co-designing flood mitigation strategies, or building the case for resilient community energy systems, each initiative reflects the potential of research to serve as a tool for justice, sustainability, and local empowerment. In Barrio Playa, the research doesn’t just sit on a shelf; it informs decisions, builds capacity, and, hopefully, reshapes futures.
As this work evolves, so too does my understanding of what it means to do research that matters. I invite you to stay with me on this path, as together, we continue to learn, unlearn, and imagine new ways forward.
