Capacity Building for Global Change

全球变化分析、研究和培训系统（START）是三个主要国际全球变化研究方案-世界气候研究方案（WCRP）、国际地圈生物圈方案（IGBP）、和国际人道主义方面（全球环境变化）计划（IHDP）-将努力发展亚洲、太平洋和非洲发展中国家在全球变化研究方面的科学能力。 START还将促进这些地区国家的科学家之间以及这些国家的科学家与美国和其他在全球变化研究方面具有先进能力的国家的科学家之间在全球变化研究和相关科学活动方面的合作。START将集中于国际计划和美国全球变化研究的六个高度优先的科学领域。 这些领域是：（1）区域气候变率和变化;（2）大气组成的变化及其影响;（3）土地利用/土地覆盖变化，特别是其生物物理和地球化学方面;（4）全球变化与陆地生态系统及其生物多样性之间的相互作用;（5）全球变化与海洋、沿海区和内陆沃茨及其生物多样性之间的相互作用;以及（6）跨越这些领域的科学问题，例如，全球变化与粮食系统之间以及全球变化与水资源之间的相互作用，预计这些活动将导致更好地了解全球变化及其在亚洲、太平洋和非洲的具体特点和后果;改善和扩大这些区域的科学家对全球努力，特别是对全球建模的投入;并提高这些区域的科学能力，以促进和参与地方、区域和全球各级的全球变化研究。 在亚洲和太平洋，START将与亚太全球变化研究网络密切合作。START将把它在北方非洲开发的极端事件监测系统推广到非洲大陆其他地区，并将召开一次关于全球变化与淡水资源关系的讲习班，特别侧重于非洲的干旱和半干旱地区。 裁武条约将与第三世界科学院密切合作，确保非洲科学家充分和积极参与这些活动。 非洲的另外两个重点领域将是：（1）全球变化与粮食系统之间的相互作用;（2）土地使用/土地变化/生态系统的可变性，这两个领域对非洲国家来说都是高度优先的。 START还将扩大努力，评估南部非洲气候变化的影响和适应情况，特别是通过促进发展这一进程的网络和发展这一评估的分析工具。START还将通过召开一次“综合和未来会议”来处理极地沿海区和这些地区的变化问题，召集活跃在俄罗斯北极地区的科学家，审查过去关于北极沿海区变化及其与全球变化的关系的研究，然后考虑如何最好地规划这一领域的未来研究。

The Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START), as the major international outreach program of three of the major international global change research programs - the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and the International Human Dimensions (of Global Environmental Change) Program (IHDP) - will undertake efforts to develop scientific capabilities in global change research in developing countries of Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. START will also promote collaboration in global change research and related scientific activities among scientists from the countries of these regions and between scientists from these countries and scientists from the United States and other countries with advanced capabilities in global change research.START will focus on six scientific areas of high priority for the international programs and for U.S. research on global change. These areas are: (1) regional climate variability and change; (2) changes in the composition of the atmosphere and its effects; (3) land use/land cover change, especially its biophysical and biogeochemical aspects; (4) interaction between global change and terrestrial ecosystems and their biodiversity; (5) interaction between global change and oceans, coastal zones, and inland waters and their biodiversity; and (6) scientific problems that cut across these areas, e.g., interactions between global change and food systems and between global change and water resources.These activities are expected to lead to improved understanding of global change and its particular characteristics and consequences in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa; improved and expanded input from the scientists of these regions to global efforts, especially to global modeling; and improved scientific capabilities in these regions to contribute to and participate in global change research at local, regional and global levels. In Asia and the Pacific, START will collaborate closely with the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN). START will extend the monitoring system for extreme events it has developed in northern Africa to other parts of the continent and will convene a workshop on the relationship of global change to freshwater resources, with a special focus on the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa. START will work closely with the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) to assure full and active participation by African scientists in these activities. Two other areas of emphasis in Africa will be (1) the interactions between global change and food systems and (2) land use/land change/ecosystem variability, both areas of exceptionally high priority for African countries. START will also extend efforts to assess the impacts of and adaptation to climate change in southern Africa, particularly by promoting development of a network for this process and development of analytical tools for such an assessment. START will also address polar coastal zones and change in these zones by convening a "synthesis and futures meeting" to bring together scientists active in the Russian Arctic to review past research on changes in coastal zones in the Arctic and their relationship to global change and then to consider how best to plan future research in this area.