Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Integrated Analysis of Freshwater Resources Sustainability in Jordan

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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 a framework to understand and evaluate water management options and strategies in water-stressed countries using Jordan as a model state. Jordan has one of the lowest water resources availability and is the heart of Middle East trans-boundary water issues, making it representative of many physical and social structures that can lead to widespread freshwater security challenges. Existing models typically neglect interactions and feedbacks between hydrological and socioeconomic systems, thereby limiting the ability to understand the implications and feedbacks of long term management strategies and water availability changes. This project will develop quantitative evaluation tools to explore ways to enhance sustainability of freshwater systems through a variety of social and economic mechanisms. Models will incorporate both natural processes and human decision making and management criteria. These efforts will be used to evaluate a wide range of freshwater management options. This work will contribute new tools to understand and forecast water management strategies and feedbacks between natural and social systems. The project will involve a range of government agencies, civil organizations and research institutes to strengthen individual and institutional capacity of the water sector in Jordan, with implications for water management strategies in water stressed states everywhere.