Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research: Multi-scale adaptations to global change and their impacts on vulnerability in coastal areas

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，将创造一个更好地了解潜在的社会生态适应过程在沿海地区，促进有效适应沿海脆弱性。适应做法可能对社会、特定利害关系方和/或生态系统的脆弱性产生长期和意外的后果。了解生物物理变化风险、认知过程和适应做法之间的反馈如何发生，可促进更有效的适应战略。该项目将采用一种社会生态系统方法，在法国、南非和联合王国的三个沿海地区模拟应对气候变化的做法和反馈。这将通过评估以下因素之间的相互作用来实现：（1）气候变化造成的实际风险;（2）认知因素，如感知风险和适应能力;（3）适应;（4）决策者和利害关系方参与建模过程的情景学习。 将开发从个人到区域规划机构的多尺度模型，以研究有助于适应做法的认知转变。该项目将通过侧重于决策的方式以及决策和做法的长期影响和后果，为改进脆弱性和适应评估和决策作出贡献。

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 create a better understanding of the underlying socio-ecological adaptation processes in coastal regions that facilitate effective adaptation to coastal vulnerabilities. Adaptation practices can have long term and unintended consequences for the vulnerability of society, specific stakeholders, and/or ecosystems. Understanding how feedbacks occur between risk from biophysical changes, cognitive processes and adaptation practices can facilitate more effective adaptation strategies. This project will adopt a socio-ecological systems approach to model practices and feedbacks in response to climate change in three coastal regions in France, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. This will be done by assessing interactions among (1) actual risks posed by climate change; (2) cognitive factors such as perceived risk and adaptive capacity; (3) adaptations; and (4) situational learning where decision makers and stakeholders participate in modeling processes. Multi-scale models, ranging in scale from individuals to regional planning bodies, will be developed to study cognitive shifts that contribute to adaptation practices. This project will contribute toward improving vulnerability and adaptation assessment and decisions by focusing on the way decisions are made and the long term implications consequences of decisions and practices.