FEW: River FEWs: Workshop to explore the nexus between food, energy and water in a large international river system ; University of Washington; September, 2015

该项目将召开为期三天的研讨会，探讨大型河流生态系统中粮食、能源和水（FEW）系统之间的自然科学和社会科学联系。 本次研讨会将汇集30-50人与科学和/或政策的专业知识在一个或多个要素的FEWS关系与确定关键的驱动程序和联系，新兴的属性，并在生态可持续性的背景下的关键研究需求的目标。 与会者将重点关注湄公河流域作为一个典型的FEW耦合社会生态系统。超过6000万人生活在湄公河流域，他们的食物和生计高度依赖于这条河。 野生鱼类和水稻是主要的营养来源，渔业和水稻农业的生产力取决于自然洪水脉冲水文状况。 由于干流和支流水电开发、快速的土地利用变化和气候变化，这条河面临着洪水脉动的潜在巨大变化。 新能源的经济效益预计将是巨大的，但目前对社会和环境影响的了解甚少。 因此，渔业/农业、水文动力学和水电构成了湄公河的食物、水和能源三难困境，在空间和时间上都是相互联系的。 本次研讨会的成果将为理解湄公河和其他河流生态系统中FEW动态的相互关联和相互依赖性奠定基础。 该项目将通过提高湄公河科学家和代表性不足的群体的科学能力，支持教育和多样性，大河生态系统为人们提供众多和动态的生态系统产品和服务。 尽管人们对河流提供的货物和服务类型有着普遍的了解，并普遍认识到其社会和经济效益，但显然缺乏概念和量化框架来评估创造生态系统服务和生计的物理、生物和社会动态。 因此，了解生态系统变化的影响和评估权衡的能力有限。 本次研讨会将开始通过以下方式解决这些限制：1）开发一个概念模型，说明多个物理、社会和生态过程如何连接和构建大型河流中的少数水系统; 2）在此框架内确定维持可持续性的关键联系和流量; 3）评估现有数据和量化这些过程的能力;（4）确定未来的关键研究需求，以填补研究概念和数据方面的空白。主要调查人员已经确定了最初的60名潜在受邀者，其中包括活跃在湄公河地区的一系列机构的国际代表。这些包括学术、政府（美国和湄公河）、政府间和非政府组织。调查人员打算邀请50-70名参与者，预计30-35人参加，妇女和代表性不足的少数民族的参与率超过40%。具体产品将包括一份白色论文和期刊文章，描述河流中食物水能源研究的现状和前沿，以及数字存档。 发展新的合作，以解决关键的研究问题是讲习班的一个具体目标，并强烈预期。更广泛的影响将包括湄公河科学家和来自政府和非政府机构的政策利益攸关方直接参与研讨会的各个方面，以确保成果与利益攸关方的需求相关，并可用于决策过程。 研讨会的所有产品都将通过项目网站、华盛顿大学的湄公河门户网站mekong.uw.edu和佛罗里达州立大学的湄公河门户网站coss.fsu.edu/mekong提供。 这项研究将通过湄公河科学家参与讲习班的规划、执行和出版讲习班成果，为提高该地区的科学能力作出贡献。

This project will convene a three-day workshop to explore natural and social science linkages between food, energy, and water (FEW) systems in large river ecosystems. This workshop will bring together 30-50 persons with scientific and/or policy expertise within one or more elements of the FEWS nexus with the goal of identifying key drivers and linkages, emergent properties, and critical research needs within the context of ecological sustainability. The participants will focus on the Mekong River Basin as an archetypal FEW coupled social-ecological system. More than 60 million people living in the Mekong are highly dependent on the river for food and livelihoods. Wild-caught fish and rice are the primary sources of nutrition, with the productivity of both fisheries and rice agriculture dependent on the natural flood-pulse hydrologic regime. The river is facing potentially large changes to the flood-pulse from mainstream and tributary hydropower development, rapid land use change and climate change. The economic benefits of new energy are expected to be substantial, but the social and environmental impacts are at present poorly understood. Fisheries/agriculture, hydrologic dynamics, and hydropower therefore form the food, water, and energy trilemma in the Mekong and are linked in both space and time. The results of this workshop will create a foundation for understanding the interconnected and interdependent nature of FEW dynamics in the Mekong and other river ecosystems. The project will support both education and diversity by enhancing the scientific capacity of Mekong scientists and underrepresented groups.Large river ecosystems provide numerous and dynamic ecosystem goods and services to people. Despite a general understanding of the types of goods and services derived from rivers and a widespread recognition of their social and economic benefit, there is a distinct lack of conceptual and quantitative frameworks for evaluating the physical, biological, and social dynamics that create ecosystem services and livelihoods. As such, there is limited ability to understand impacts from ecosystem change and to evaluate tradeoffs. This workshop will begin to address these limitations by: 1) developing a conceptual model of how multiple physical, social, and ecological processes connect and structure FEW systems in large rivers; 2) within this framework identify key linkages and flows for maintaining sustainability; 3) evaluate currently available data and capacity for quantifying these processes; and 4) identify key future research needs for addressing research conceptual and data gaps. The principal investigators have identified an initial set of 60 potential invitees, including international representation from a range of institutions active in the Mekong region. These include academic, governmental (US and Mekong), intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The investigators intend to invite 50-70 participants expecting 30-35 to attend with greater than 40% participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Specific products will include a white paper and journal article describing the current status and frontier of Food Water Energy research in rivers, as well as digital archiving. Development of new collaborations to address critical research questions is a specific goal of the workshop and is strongly anticipated. The broader impacts will include direct engagement of Mekong scientists and policy stakeholders from governmental and non-governmental institutions in all aspect of the workshop to ensure that outcomes are relevant to stakeholder needs and available for uptake in the decision making process. All products from the workshop will be made feely available via the project website, the Mekong portal at the University of Washington, mekong.uw.edu, and through the Florida State University Mekong portal at coss.fsu.edu/mekong. This research will contribute to improved scientific capacity in the region through participation of Mekong scientists in the workshop planning, execution, and publication of workshop outputs.