Leveraging the humanity of randomized controlled trials for actionability

Social experiments such as randomized control trials (RCTs), which rely on systematic assessment in highly structured environments, are a robust approach to design and evaluate actionable and scalable solutions to address global environmental change threats. RCTs’ implementation can be challenging, especially when involving actual actors and decision contexts—that is, when they possess a level of humanity that defies scholars’ ability to control all the variables that can shape their results. Rather than “failures” threatening experimental validity, we argue that by embracing these challenges, RCTs can critically influence results’ actionability. In the tradition of “society as experiment” from public administration and urban studies, RCTs can offer a valuable opportunity for learning combining robust fundamental science and impact. To illustrate our argument, we offer evidence from an RCT—FloodWise Communities—that engaged 60 US Gulf Coast communities to test technology interventions designed to assist the stormwater infrastructure adaptation planning “action context”.