Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research: Drought Impacts Vulnerability Thresholds in Monitoring and Early Warning Research

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。贝尔蒙特论坛是全球环境变化研究和国际科学理事会的世界主要和新兴资助者的高级别小组。 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）。 该奖项支持的研究活动将开发一种创新的方法，结合使用水文气象和社会经济数据，以改善干旱监测和预警系统以及相关的干旱风险管理战略。干旱对地球仪各地的淡水安全构成威胁。经常使用一系列干旱指标来分别描述这些事件对环境和社会的影响。该项目力求将这些自然和社会办法结合起来，以制定更有效的干旱管理办法。该项目的目标包括：（1）比较和评价不同地理环境和治理结构的干旱影响指标;（2）确定和比较界定社会脆弱性和干旱影响的干旱指标阈值;（3）参与社会学习，探索框架，决策，（4）在改进干旱监测和预警系统的基础上，制定建立抗旱社区和生态系统的途径，管理和培训。研究人员将与不同的利益相关者和最终用户群体接触，以了解使社区易受干旱影响的特征，并提高社区适应不同社会，经济和文化背景的能力。这些努力将通过更好地了解和评估干旱影响，促进改善淡水安全。

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 an innovative methodological approach combining the use of hydro-meteorological and socio-economic data to improve drought monitoring and early warning systems and associated drought risk management strategies. Droughts pose a threat to freshwater security in diverse areas around the globe. A range of drought metrics is often used to characterize the impacts of these events separately in the environment and in society. This project seeks to bridge these natural and social approaches to develop more effective drought management approaches. The objectives of this project include (1) compare and evaluate drought impact indicators across geographic settings and governance structures; (2) identify and compare drought indicator thresholds that define social vulnerability and drought impacts; (3) engage in social learning to explore framing, decision making, and drought practices by a diverse range of stakeholders and (4) develop pathways to drought resilient communities and ecosystems based on improved drought monitoring and early warning systems, management, and training. Researchers will engage with a diverse group of stakeholders and end-users to understand the characteristics that make communities vulnerable to droughts and improve the capacity of communities to adapt in different social, economic, and cultural contexts. These efforts will contribute toward improved freshwater security by developing a better understanding and assessment of drought impacts.