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

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。该奖项支持将开发一个通用的建模框架的研究活动，该框架可用于评估世界的独特功能、关键应激源和脆弱性-S三角洲。三角洲是重要的经济和环境系统，支撑着世界上很大一部分地区--S的人口、经济活动和生态系统。由于气候变化、流域变化以及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循证框架：(1)将三角洲可持续发展科学作为关键的人-自然耦合系统加以推进；(2)共同设计、开发和提供一个基于证据的可持续发展框架，用于风险评估和决策支持；(3)建立一个综合三角洲数据集的国际储存库；以及(4)与当地利益攸关方合作，开发和实施一个建模和决策支持框架。从地方到国家，这一框架将适用于恒河-雅鲁藏布江-梅格纳、湄公河和亚马逊三角洲的三个案例研究。该项目将通过与专家和利益攸关方合作，提供一种整合社会、经济、生物物理和生态系统服务组成部分的机制，以评估三角洲的脆弱性并指导跨规模的可持续管理战略和决策，从而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.