Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research: XINGU - Integrating Land Use Planning and Water Governance in Amazonia

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。贝尔蒙特论坛是一个高层次的世界集团？全球环境变化研究和国际科学理事会的主要和新兴资助者。 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）。 该奖项支持研究活动，将审查与热带森林密集型作物农业扩展有关的淡水安全问题。作物农业集约化是一个全球现象，随着人口和收入的增加，土地使用正在迅速改变。这些农业变化对水的使用和质量具有重要影响，但土地使用的变化很少与水治理和管理的变化联系在一起。该项目将（1）确定土地转换、耕地扩张和农业集约化的影响如何相互作用，影响区域蒸散量、降雨量、河流洪水、水质和河流生境，以及将危及农业生产、生计和基础设施的变化阈值，（2）何种治理和沟通机制最适合促进有效和高效的水管理。农民、牧场主、家庭、市政官员和企业将参与评估哪些机制可以影响水安全评估和管理权衡。该项目将有助于更好地了解土地利用的变化如何影响水资源利用和治理，以及参与和管理如何影响土地利用迅速变化的地区的淡水可持续性。

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 examine issues surrounding freshwater security associated with the expansion of intensive crop agriculture in tropical forests. Intensification of crop agriculture is a global phenomenon that is rapidly shifting land use as populations and incomes increase. These agricultural changes have important implications for water use and quality, but land use changes are rarely associated with changes in water governance and management. This project will (1) identify how impacts from land conversion, cropland expansion and agricultural intensification interact to affect regional evapotranspiration, rainfall generation, river flooding, water quality and stream habitat and the thresholds of change that will endanger agricultural production, livelihoods and infrastructure, and (2) what mechanisms of governance and communication are best suited to facilitate effective and efficient water management. Farmers, ranchers, families, municipal officials and businesses will be engaged to assess what mechanisms can influence water security assessments and manage tradeoffs. This project will contribute toward an improved understanding of how shifts in land use impacts water use and governance and how engagement and management can impact freshwater sustainability in regions with rapidly changing land use.