This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 13-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum and the G8 countries Heads of Research Councils. The Belmont Forum is a high level group of the world's major and emerging funders of global environmental change research and international science councils. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international environmental research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. The G8 Heads of Research Councils developed a funding framework to support multilateral research projects that address global challenges in ways that are beyond the capacity of national or bilateral activities. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.
Working together in an inaugural call of the International Opportunities Fund, the Belmont Forum and G8HORCs have provided support for research projects that seek to deliver knowledge needed for action to mitigate and adapt to detrimental environmental change and extreme hazardous events that relate to either Freshwater Security or Coastal Vulnerability. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries and that bring together natural scientists, social scientists and research users (e.g., policy makers, regulators, NGOs, communities and industry).
This award supports research activities that will develop an innovative methodological approach combining the use of hydro-meteorological and socio-economic data to improve drought monitoring and early warning systems and associated drought risk management strategies. Droughts pose a threat to freshwater security in diverse areas around the globe. A range of drought metrics is often used to characterize the impacts of these events separately in the environment and in society. This project seeks to bridge these natural and social approaches to develop more effective drought management approaches. The objectives of this project include (1) compare and evaluate drought impact indicators across geographic settings and governance structures; (2) identify and compare drought indicator thresholds that define social vulnerability and drought impacts; (3) engage in social learning to explore framing, decision making, and drought practices by a diverse range of stakeholders and (4) develop pathways to drought resilient communities and ecosystems based on improved drought monitoring and early warning systems, management, and training. Researchers will engage with a diverse group of stakeholders and end-users to understand the characteristics that make communities vulnerable to droughts and improve the capacity of communities to adapt in different social, economic, and cultural contexts. These efforts will contribute toward improved freshwater security by developing a better understanding and assessment of drought impacts.
