Proof of Adaptation is a proposed way to support verified, local adaptation knowledge. It starts from the fact that a useful practice can be reported, measured, replicated, or merely repeated without evidence—and those are not the same kind of claim.
The operating first step
The open rain-garden question is the first public practice record in this path. It connects a question in #question-quarry to source trails in the Knowledge Vault, distinguishes external guidance from a local result, and invites human source review and general observations. Its current evidence state is conceived. No local site, protocol, field trial, or witnessed outcome has been admitted.
A source review could improve the question and its citations. An observation could identify conditions worth investigating. Neither would by itself prove that a rain garden works at a particular site. A field claim needs a consenting site organizer, a site-specific protocol that states what will be observed and compared, permission to use any submitted material, and a recorded result with its limits. Independent repetition would be a further step. Missing measurements remain missing; they are never recorded as zero impact.
The proposed wider loop connects signals and research to community questions, durable source records, practical guides or trials, and witnessed results that inform the next questions. The present rain-garden record demonstrates the question and source stages. It does not demonstrate a completed trial.
Duluth garden drainage question
A community question about Duluth gardens has also become an open request for provider offers. The requested first result is a bounded map and source-linked screening of one garden's surrounding drainage context. The public source check locates one garden-program map marker in a Minnesota DNR catchment and records the City data-access limit. It does not establish a garden-scale drainage path.
This question is conceived. A map-based screening, if completed and reviewed, would remain a screening; it would not establish permission, engineering feasibility, water volume, or a field outcome. No provider has been selected, no spending has been authorized, and no paid report is being offered.
Work-shaped participation
The design proposes a proof-of-adaptation token earned for completed, witnessed work and data quality. The proposal expressly does not describe an investment asset or promise appreciation. Before any such mechanism can be treated as operational, its custody, admission, and governance conditions must be earned in the settlement record.
Read the related public account of governance for the intended relationship between witnessed work and collective decision-making.