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

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和测试一个新的综合框架，以研究发展途径，社会环境系统和政策决策之间的相互作用，以应对与大规模沿海城市化相关的极端事件，如热浪和洪水。历史变革通过建设重要的城市基础设施，如水和环境卫生以及空气质量，促进了复原力。其他较为有限的变化，如社会护理方面的变化，也进一步促进了复原力。在过去的转型和变化中，整合从生物物理、社会和政策动态的相互作用中吸取的经验教训，对于理解和评估城市复原力可能发生变化的压力点、阈值和政策以及这些变化对社会的影响至关重要。 该项目将（1）为城市可持续性和安全的复原力、过渡和转型提出概念;（2）制定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互动平台，促进对城市发展和风险管理优先事项和方法的集体理解。在五个沿海特大城市，包括加尔各答、拉各斯、伦敦、纽约和东京的个案研究将用于测试概念模型和方法的发展。该项目将有助于理解相互作用限制或开放城市系统复原力或转型机会的途径和权衡。

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.