Capacity Building for Global Change

全球变化分析、研究和培训系统(START)作为三个主要国际全球变化研究计划--世界气候研究计划(WCRP)、国际地圈-生物圈计划(IGBP)和(全球环境变化的)国际人因计划(IHDP)--的主要国际推广计划，将致力于在亚洲、太平洋和非洲的发展中国家发展全球变化研究的科学能力。START还将促进这些地区国家的科学家之间以及这些国家的科学家与美国和其他具有全球变化研究先进能力的国家的科学家在全球变化研究和相关科学活动方面的合作。START将专注于国际项目和美国全球变化研究的六个高度优先的科学领域。这些领域是：(1)区域气候变异性和变化；(2)大气组成及其影响的变化；(3)土地利用/土地覆盖变化，特别是其生物物理和生物地球化学方面；(4)全球变化与陆地生态系统及其生物多样性之间的相互作用；(5)全球变化与海洋、沿海地区和内陆水域及其生物多样性之间的相互作用；以及(6)横跨这些领域的科学问题，例如全球变化与粮食系统之间的相互作用以及全球变化与水资源之间的相互作用。这些活动有望增进对全球变化及其在亚洲、太平洋和非洲的特殊特征和后果的理解；改善和扩大这些区域的科学家对全球努力，特别是对全球建模的投入；以及提高这些区域在地方、区域和全球各级促进和参与全球变化研究的科学能力。在亚洲和太平洋地区，START将与亚太全球变化研究网络(APN)密切合作。START将把它在北非开发的极端事件监测系统扩展到非洲大陆的其他地区，并将召开一次关于全球变化与淡水资源关系的讲习班，重点是非洲的干旱和半干旱地区。START将与第三世界科学院密切合作，确保非洲科学家充分和积极地参与这些活动。非洲的另外两个重点领域将是(1)全球变化与粮食系统之间的相互作用和(2)土地利用/土地变化/生态系统变异性，这两个领域对非洲国家来说都是特别优先的领域。《削减战略武器条约》还将继续努力评估南部非洲气候变化的影响和适应情况，特别是通过促进发展这一进程的网络和开发这种评估的分析工具。START还将召开一次“综合和未来会议”，召集活跃在俄罗斯北极的科学家，回顾过去对北极沿海地区变化及其与全球变化的关系的研究，然后考虑如何最好地规划这一领域的未来研究，从而解决极地沿海地区和这些地区的变化问题。

The Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START), as the major international outreach program of three of the major international global change research programs - the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and the International Human Dimensions (of Global Environmental Change) Program (IHDP) - will undertake efforts to develop scientific capabilities in global change research in developing countries of Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. START will also promote collaboration in global change research and related scientific activities among scientists from the countries of these regions and between scientists from these countries and scientists from the United States and other countries with advanced capabilities in global change research.START will focus on six scientific areas of high priority for the international programs and for U.S. research on global change. These areas are: (1) regional climate variability and change; (2) changes in the composition of the atmosphere and its effects; (3) land use/land cover change, especially its biophysical and biogeochemical aspects; (4) interaction between global change and terrestrial ecosystems and their biodiversity; (5) interaction between global change and oceans, coastal zones, and inland waters and their biodiversity; and (6) scientific problems that cut across these areas, e.g., interactions between global change and food systems and between global change and water resources.These activities are expected to lead to improved understanding of global change and its particular characteristics and consequences in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa; improved and expanded input from the scientists of these regions to global efforts, especially to global modeling; and improved scientific capabilities in these regions to contribute to and participate in global change research at local, regional and global levels. In Asia and the Pacific, START will collaborate closely with the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN). START will extend the monitoring system for extreme events it has developed in northern Africa to other parts of the continent and will convene a workshop on the relationship of global change to freshwater resources, with a special focus on the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa. START will work closely with the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) to assure full and active participation by African scientists in these activities. Two other areas of emphasis in Africa will be (1) the interactions between global change and food systems and (2) land use/land change/ecosystem variability, both areas of exceptionally high priority for African countries. START will also extend efforts to assess the impacts of and adaptation to climate change in southern Africa, particularly by promoting development of a network for this process and development of analytical tools for such an assessment. START will also address polar coastal zones and change in these zones by convening a "synthesis and futures meeting" to bring together scientists active in the Russian Arctic to review past research on changes in coastal zones in the Arctic and their relationship to global change and then to consider how best to plan future research in this area.