Belmont Forum-G8 Collaborative Research: DELTAS: Catalyzing action towards sustainability of deltaic systems with an integrated modeling framework for risk assessment

该奖项支持美国研究人员参加一个项目，该项目是由13个国家通过贝尔蒙特论坛和八国集团国家研究理事会负责人竞争性选择的。贝尔蒙特论坛是全球环境变化研究和国际科学理事会的世界主要和新兴资助者的高级别小组。 它的目的是通过调整和调动国际资源，加快提供最迫切需要的国际环境研究，以消除可持续性的关键障碍。八国集团研究理事会负责人制定了一个供资框架，以支持以超出国家或双边活动能力的方式应对全球挑战的多边研究项目。每个伙伴国家都在一个财团内为其研究人员提供资金，以减轻跨越国际边界的资金需求。 这一办法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对具有全球意义的专题进行出色的研究，这些专题最好通过多国办法加以解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决办法。贝尔蒙特论坛和G8 HORC为研究项目提供了支持，这些项目旨在提供采取行动减轻和适应有害环境所需的知识，与淡水安全或沿海脆弱性有关的环境变化和极端危险事件。 该奖项为美国研究人员提供支持，使他们能够在由至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中进行合作，并将自然科学家，社会科学家和研究用户（例如，政策制定者、监管机构、非政府组织、社区和行业）。 该奖项支持的研究活动，将开发一个多功能的建模框架，可应用于评估独特的功能，关键的压力，和脆弱性的世界？s三角洲。三角洲是经济和环境上重要的系统，维持着世界的很大一部分？人口、经济活动和生态系统。由于气候变化、集水区变化、当地开发和生态系统退化，这些系统正在迅速恶化。该项目将通过以下方式为全球三角洲可持续发展制定一个基于证据的框架：（1）推进三角洲可持续发展科学，将其作为关键的人与自然耦合系统;（2）共同设计、开发和交付基于证据的可持续发展框架，用于风险评估和决策支持;（3）建立综合三角洲数据集的国际存储库;以及（4）与当地利益相关者合作，开发和实施建模和决策支持框架。这一框架适用于从地方到国家各级，将应用于恒河-布拉马普特拉河-梅克纳河、湄公河和亚马逊河三角洲的三个案例研究。该项目将与专家和利益攸关方合作，通过提供一种机制，整合社会、经济、生物物理和生态系统服务组成部分，评估三角洲脆弱性，并指导跨尺度的可持续管理战略和决策，为有效的区域三角洲管理和治理做出贡献。

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 versatile modeling framework that can be applied to evaluate the unique functioning, critical stressors, and vulnerability of the world?s deltas. Deltas are economically and environmentally important systems, sustaining a large portion of the world?s populations, economic activity, and ecosystems. These systems are deteriorating rapidly due to climate changes, catchment changes, and local exploitation and ecosystem degradation. This project will develop an evidence-based framework for global delta sustainability by (1) advancing delta sustainability science as critical coupled human-natural systems; (2) co-design, -develop, and -deliver an evidence-based sustainability framework for risk assessment and decision support; (3) build an international repository of integrated delta datasets; and (4) develop and implement a modeling and decision support framework in partnership with local stakeholders. Applicable from local to national levels, this framework will be applied to three case-studies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, Mekong, and Amazon deltas. This project will contribute toward effective regional delta management and governance by providing a mechanism to integrate social, economic, bio-physical, and ecosystem services components to assess delta vulnerability and guide sustainable management strategies and decisions across scales, in collaboration with experts and stakeholders.