Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collabrative Research: Transformation and Resilience on Urban Coasts

该奖项为参与一个由13个国家通过贝尔蒙论坛和八国集团研究理事会的全球变化研究计划竞争性选择的项目的美国研究人员提供支持。贝尔蒙特论坛是由全球环境变化研究和国际科学理事会的全球主要和新兴资助者组成的一个高级别组织。其目的是通过协调和调动国际资源，加速开展最迫切需要的国际环境研究，以消除对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筹资框架，以支持多边研究项目，这些项目以超出国家或双边活动能力的方式应对全球挑战。每个伙伴国都在一个联合体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，支持对具有全球相关性的专题进行出色的研究，最好通过多国办法加以解决，认识到全球挑战需要全球解决办法。贝尔蒙论坛和G8HORCs在国际机遇基金的首届呼吁中共同努力，为寻求提供必要知识以采取行动减轻和适应有害环境变化和与淡水安全或沿海脆弱性有关的极端危险事件的研究项目提供了支持。该奖项为美国研究人员在财团中的合作提供支持，该财团由至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成，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)聚集在一起。该奖项支持研究活动，这些活动将开发和测试一种新的综合框架，以审查在应对与沿海大规模城市化有关的极端事件(如热浪和洪水)时，发展路径、社会环境系统和政策决策之间的相互作用。历史性的变革通过建设重要的城市基础设施，如水和卫生设施以及空气质量，促进了复原力。其他更有限的变化，如社会护理，也进一步促进了复原力。将生物物理、社会和政策动态在过去的变革和变化中相互作用的经验教训结合起来，对于理解和评估城市复原力可以发生变化的压力点、门槛和政策以及这些变化对社会的影响至关重要。该项目将(1)将城市可持续性和安全的复原力、过渡和转型概念化；(2)开发和测试生物物理和社会脆弱性评估的综合方法；(3)为利益攸关方、研究人员和学生提供一个平台，让他们相互交流，促进对城市发展和风险管理优先事项和方法的集体理解。将使用加尔各答、拉各斯、伦敦、纽约和东京等五个沿海特大城市的案例研究来测试概念模型和方法的发展。该项目将有助于理解路径和权衡，通过这些路径和权衡，相互作用限制或打开了城市系统弹性或转型的机会。

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 and test a novel integrated framework to examine the interactions between development pathways, socio-environmental systems and policy decision-making in coping with extreme events, such as heat waves and flooding, that are associated with large scale coastal urbanization. Historical transformations have facilitated resilience through the construction of critical urban infrastructures, such as for water and sanitation and air quality. Other more limited changes, such as in social care, have also further facilitated resilience. Integrating lessons learned from the interaction of biophysical, social, and policy dynamics in past transformations and changes is critical to understanding and assessing stress points, thresholds and policies at which urban resilience can change and the implications of these changes for societies. This project will (1) conceptualize resilience, transition and transformation for urban sustainability and security; (2) develop and test an integrated approach for biophysical and social vulnerability assessment; and (3) provide a platform for stakeholders, researchers, and students to interact and contribute to a collective understanding of urban development and risk management priorities and approaches. Case studies in five coastal megacities, including Kolkata, Lagos, London, New York, and Tokyo will be used to test conceptual models and methodological development. This project will contribute toward understanding pathways and trade-offs through which interactions constrain or open opportunities for resilience or transformation of urban systems.