Collaborative Research: Planning Visit to East Africa for environmental research on Lake Victoria

维多利亚湖是非洲最大的淡水湖，世界第二大淡水湖。这个湖的分水岭是3000多万人口的家园，是世界上人口增长率最高的地区之一。该流域面临着无数的环境问题，这些问题严重影响了其水域的质量，从而影响了鱼类和其他资源的供应。人口压力增加、渔业管理不善、废物管理不善、缺乏适当的污水处理、外来物种的引进、不适当的农业做法、不受管制的小规模金矿开采、不受管制的工业活动、森林砍伐和湖泊流域内强烈的放牧压力等后果包括过度沉积、富营养化、氧气消耗（缺氧）、饮用水供应受到污染、与水有关的疾病（如血吸虫病、痢疾和霍乱）发病率增加。知识价值。这次美非计划访问将支持三位美国高级研究人员前往维多利亚湖地区，会见来自肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚和乌干达的东非科学家，包括J. Machiwa教授（坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆大学）、Nicholas Lwambo博士（坦桑尼亚国家核研究中心）、Daniel Olag教授（肯尼亚内罗毕大学）、John Gichuki博士（肯尼亚海洋渔业研究中心）、Fredrick Muyodi博士（乌干达Makerere大学）、J. Balirwa博士（乌干达渔业资源研究所）。这次访问将帮助美国科学家与非洲大湖地区的科学家建立长期合作关系，该地区非常适合在许多国家科学基金会优先领域进行研究，包括气候变化科学、生物多样性和水利用/水动力学。讨论将集中在未来的合作项目上。更广泛的影响。新的合作项目旨在将新的和现有的数据集综合成一个连贯的模型，该模型既描述了包括气候变化在内的人为压力对当地环境的协同效应，又预测了减排措施与继续不作为对这个大型热带湖泊提供的生态系统服务的生产力和可持续性的影响。了解这些问题有可能改善这个脆弱生态系统的社会、经济和环境可持续性。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室资助。

Lake Victoria is the largest freshwater lake in Africa and the second largest in the world. The lake's watershed is home to more than 30 million people, a region with one of the highest population growth rates in the world. The watershed faces a myriad of environmental problems that seriously impact the quality of its waters and hence the availability of fish and other resources. Increasing population pressure, fisheries mismanagement, poor waste management, lack of adequate sewage treatment, introduction of exotic species, inappropriate agricultural practices, unregulated small scale gold mining, unchecked industrial activities, deforestation and intense grazing pressures within the lake's watershed have had repercussions such as excessive sedimentation, eutrophication, oxygen depletion (hypoxia), contaminated drinking water supply, and an increased incidence of water-associated diseases (e.g., schistosomiasis, dysentery, and cholera).Intellectual merit. This US-Africa planning visit will support the travel of three senior researchers from the US to the Lake Victoria region to meet with East African scientists from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda including Prof. J. Machiwa (University of Dar es Salaam - Tanzania), Dr. Nicholas Lwambo (NMRI - Tanzania), Prof. Daniel Olag (Univiversity of Nairobi - Kenya), Dr. John Gichuki, (Kenya Marine Fisheries Research), Dr. Fredrick Muyodi (Makerere University - Uganda), and Dr. J. Balirwa (Fisheries Resources Research Institute - Uganda). The visit will help the US scientists establish long term collaborations with scientists in the African great lakes region, an area that is well suited for study in many NSF priority areas including climate change science, biodiversity, and water use/water dynamics. Discussions will focus on future collaborative projects.Broader impacts. New collaborative projects will aim to synthesize new and extant data sets into a coherent model that both describes the synergistic effects of anthropogenic pressures including climate change on the local environment and predicts the effects of abatement measures versus continued inaction on the productivity and sustainability of ecosystem services provided by this large tropical lake. Understanding these issues has the potential to improve the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of this vulnerable ecosystem.This award is being funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.