NASA released a report summarizing the findings from the UNBOUND-FEW workshop series, which explored ways to make openly available NASA Earth science data more accessible to Tribal and Indigenous communities. The UNBOUND program, which stands for “Understanding Needs to Broaden Outside Use of NASA Data,” and “FEW,” referring to “food-energy-water” resources, are essential quality-of-life resources central to Tribal climate adaptation efforts.  

The Alaska CASC was one of several partners that helped NASA organize the workshops, held from December 2023 to May 2024. Key contributors from the AK CASC included Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison Malinda Chase, Alaska Tribal Resilience Learning Network Coordinator Krista Heeringa, and Assistant Program Coordinator for the Alaska Tribal Resilience Learning Network, Megan Pittas. 

The workshops brought together 15 participants with strong ties to Tribal communities, including college students, government workers, K-12 educators, and members of community-based organizations. The first session focused on listening to Tribal priorities and was followed by three sessions for participants to test NASA data tools, such as “Worldview” and “POWER.” While actively testing these data tools, the participants helped identify challenges to accessing, using, and interpreting the data. They identified nine key recommendations to improve the data products, such as increasing training opportunities, refining search and filter functions, modifying them for low internet access, and making them more compatible with common GIS software. The full list of recommendations is available in the report. 

NASA plans to use these recommendations to improve data accessibility and relevance for Tribal decision-making. The Alaska CASC’s involvement helps ensure that these tools and resources can be better tailored to the needs of Alaska Native communities.