International Research Fellowship Program: Disaster Preparedness and Response in Central Mexico: Towards an Adaption Baseline

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0401939EakinThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-two-month research fellowship by Dr. Hallie C. Eakin to work with Dr. Victor Magana at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico and with Dr. Diana Liverman at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom on disaster preparedness and response in Central Mexico, towards an adaptation baseline.Adaptation is a relatively new topic in climate change research and as yet there are few nations that have taken concrete steps to mitigate future vulnerability through adaptive activities. The United Nations is leading an effort to help developing nations initiate adaptation efforts, encouraging nations to begin with an evaluation of how current climatic risks and losses are managed. Within the framework of the U.N. initiative, this project will use a case study of the impact of widespread flooding in west-Central Mexico in September 2003 to explore how citizens and public institutions currently perceive and plan for climate risks and to assess both private and public responses to the crisis. The project will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to document the relationship between the state and civil society in the context of the floods, the use of scientific information in disaster planning and preparedness, and the implications of both the public sector and citizens' responses for the regional economy and future vulnerability to similar climatic hazards.