Global Centers Track 2: A multi-disciplinary framework to combat climate-induced desert locust upsurges, outbreaks, and plagues in East Africa

全球中心轨道 2：应对东非气候引起的沙漠蝗虫激增、爆发和瘟疫的多学科框架

• 批准号: 2330452
• 负责人: Daniel Gebregiorgis
• 金额: $ 24.84万
• 依托单位: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2330452&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Global; Centers; Track; multi; disciplinary

The latest IPCC report (released in 2023) highlights that climate change disproportionately affects nearly half a billion people in eastern Africa, mainly resulting from the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Increases in temperature and rainfall over desert areas in eastern Africa, and the strong winds associated with tropical cyclones, are postulated to provide favorable conditions for desert locust outbreaks. However, the specific impacts of changing climate conditions on locust dynamics and migration pathways are not fully understood. Desert locust outbreaks are a problem for many parts of eastern Africa where they seriously threaten the livelihoods of communities residing in Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In these areas crop losses to insects are projected to increase by up to 50% with an additional 2°C of global warming. Locust outbreak mitigation measures require comprehensive and coordinated response efforts inclusive of designing an early warning system, incorporating a continuous surveillance scheme, developing predictive models, innovative, accessible dissemination of information and products that permit prevention and intervention efforts at the local level. This project would develop effective strategies for mitigating future locust outbreaks driven by climate change in eastern Africa. By engaging academic researchers from relevant disciplines and local experts within affected communities, we will establish lasting partnerships to investigate and apply sustainable mitigation strategies. A central aspect of our approach is developing a mobile application that allows farmers and concerned individuals to access real-time information and report sightings of locust outbreaks. The project will test existing locust surveillance schemes and utilize a 'locust risk to communities' framework to create an interactive portal and application with location-based information. This platform will facilitate data collection and analysis, ultimately forming the basis for a future Global Climate Change Center that supports climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in the world's least developed countries. The development of the global center will also facilitate the sharing of data and analytical results through a centralized cyberinfrastructure hosted at the Center for Disaster Informatics and Computational Epidemiology at GSU. Our project seeks to contribute to developing innovative locust outbreak mitigation strategies in eastern Africa and beyond, leveraging technology and interdisciplinary collaborations to address the pressing challenges climate change poses on vulnerable populations. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges related to climate change and/or clean energy. Track 2 design awards support U.S.-based researchers to bring together international teams to develop research questions and partnerships, conduct landscape analyses, synthesize data, and/or build multi-stakeholder networks to advance their use-inspired research at larger scale in the future.  This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最新的IPCC报告（2023年发布）强调，气候变化不成比例地影响了东非近5亿人，主要原因是极端天气事件的频率和强度不断增加。非洲东部沙漠地区气温和降雨量的增加，以及热带气旋带来的强风，被认为是沙漠蝗虫暴发的有利条件。然而，气候条件的变化对蝗虫动态和迁移路径的具体影响尚未得到充分了解。沙漠蝗虫的爆发是东非许多地区的一个问题，它们严重威胁着布隆迪、科摩罗、吉布提、埃塞俄比亚、厄立特里亚、肯尼亚、卢旺达、塞舌尔、索马里、南苏丹、苏丹、坦桑尼亚和乌干达社区的生计。在这些地区，预计昆虫造成的作物损失将增加50%，全球变暖将增加2°C。要采取减轻蝗灾的措施，就必须作出全面和协调一致的反应，包括设计一个预警系统，纳入一个持续监测计划，开发预测模型，以创新和方便的方式传播信息和产品，以便在地方一级作出预防和干预努力。 该项目将制定有效的战略，以减轻东非未来因气候变化而引发的蝗灾。通过让相关学科的学术研究人员和受影响社区的当地专家参与进来，我们将建立持久的伙伴关系，以调查和应用可持续的缓解战略。我们方法的一个核心方面是开发一个移动的应用程序，使农民和有关个人能够获得实时信息，并报告蝗虫暴发的情况。该项目将测试现有的蝗虫监测计划，并利用“蝗虫对社区的风险”框架，创建一个互动门户网站和基于位置的信息应用程序。该平台将促进数据收集和分析，最终为未来的全球气候变化中心奠定基础，该中心将支持世界上最不发达国家减缓和适应气候变化的努力。全球中心的发展还将通过在GSU灾害信息学和计算流行病学中心托管的集中式网络基础设施促进数据和分析结果的共享。我们的项目旨在为东非及其他地区制定创新的蝗灾缓解战略做出贡献，利用技术和跨学科合作来应对气候变化对弱势群体构成的紧迫挑战。 该奖项由全球中心计划资助，该计划是一项创新计划，支持以使用为灵感的研究，解决与气候变化和/或清洁能源相关的全球挑战。途径2设计奖支持美国-该奖项旨在鼓励国际研究团队共同开发研究问题和合作伙伴关系，进行景观分析，综合数据和/或建立多方利益相关者网络，以在未来更大规模地推进其使用启发式研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。