Research Teams: Key Wicked Problem Focus Areas in Oklahoma

Abstract

The second chapter of the S3OK Framework presents the interdisciplinary research architecture of the National Science Foundation–funded Socially Sustainable Solutions for Water, Land Use, and Infrastructure Resilience in Oklahoma (S3OK) project and details how five coordinated research teams were organized to address Oklahoma’s most persistent “wicked problems." The S3OK project integrated four technical focus areas—Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Weather Patterns (S2S), Variable and Marginal-Quality Water Supplies (V-MQW), Terrestrial Water and Carbon Dynamics (TWCD), and Sustainable Infrastructure (SI)—under a unifying Social Dynamics (SD) team that centers public values, beliefs, and social narratives in the development of solutions. This chapter describes how each team contributes complementary scientific and policy-relevant insights to interdependent socio-environmental challenges, including climate variability and “weather whiplash,” water scarcity and reuse, land-use change and carbon management, and cascading risks across interdependent energy and water infrastructure systems. It also highlights how the SD team measured and modeled public perceptions using statewide panel survey data (M-SISNet) and collaborated with scientists and opinion leaders to identify areas of potential agreement in which solutions were more likely to gain public legitimacy. Through sustained engagement with Oklahoma households, opinion leaders (OLAN), and an extended peer science advisory network (EPSAN), the S3OK team structure created a continuous feedback loop between scientific research, stakeholder priorities, and policy-relevant solution design. By coordinating across disciplines and problem domains, this team-based model enabled the co-production of knowledge, reframing of contested problems, and identification of socially sustainable strategies for managing complex risks to water, land, and infrastructure systems in Oklahoma.