November 23, 2010, Dr. Greg Greenwood, Exe-cutive Director of the Mountain Research Initiative, University of Bern, Switzerland gave a lecture at the Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology, CASS. The topic is how to How Can We Implement Interdisciplinary Earth System Science on the Third Pole? This seminar was chaired by Professor DU Fachun from CASS, Project Director, Research on Ecological Resettlement in Sanjinagyuan Area of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, funded by the Ford Foundation. This project is to conduct field research and provide feedback on the government s strategy of protecting grasslands in southern Qinghai Province.
The attendeers of this roundtable are: Prof. Dong Shikui from Beijing Normal University, Professor Wang Zhaohui from the Minzu University of China, Prof. Zhang Jijiiao, Dr. Dingsai, Dr.Yihua, Dr. Ma Zongjie, Du Qianping, Zhang Xiaomin, and Adi na from IEA, listened to the lecture and the followed discussion.
Dr. Greg Greenwood is the Exe-cutive Director of the Mountain Research Initiative, University of Bern, Switzerland. In this lecture, he introduced an approach to interdisciplinary research derived from that of the Global Land Project, then discussed how we might implement this approach in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau using GIS concepts and technologies. His objective is to create a framework within which multiple researchers from many disciplines could collaborate over the long term to understand the coupled human-earth system in the mountains of Monsoon Asia.
The outline of Dr. Greg s lecture can be divided into two parts, PART I GLP approach, PART II How can we adapt the GLP approach to the Third Pole using GIS concepts and technologies? General concepts is as the followings:
PART I GLP approach:
The MRI used the Global Land Project (GLP) Science Plan as a framework by which to link together disciplinary studies, which is based on a research strategy report in 2005 by the Global Change in Mountain Regions (or GLOCHAMORE) project, a European Union FP6 Support Action, for which MRI is responsible for the project s scientific project management. The research strategy report outlined more than 40 priority research topics under 10 headings that the mountain research community thought should pursued in mountains regions within an interdisciplinary context in order to understand truly the coupled human-earth system. The 10 headings are:
1）Climate,
2）Land Use Change,
3）Cyrosphere,
4）Hydrologic Systems,
5）Ecosystem Function,
6）Biodiversity and Ecosystem Structure,
7）Hazards,
8）Pests and Diseases,
9）Economies,
10）Institutions.
The MRI used this diagram taken from the Global Land Project Science Plan as a framework by which to link together disciplinary studies.
The Global Land Project saw three major research themes with this scheme. The first, shown with green arrows, involves the dynamics of land systems. The second, shown with red arrows, involves the consequences of land system change. And finally, the third, shown with blue arrows, involves land/resource sustainability. Each of these themes contains within it a set of key questions:
Theme 1: Dynamics of Land Systems
1.1: How Do Globalisation and Population Change Affect
1.2: How Do Changes in Land Management Decisions and Practices Affect Biogeochemistry, Biodiversity, Biophysical Properties and Disturbance Regimes of Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosytems?
1.3: How Do the Atmospheric, Biogeochemical and Biophysical Dimensions of Global Change Affect Ecosystem Structure and Function?
Theme 2: Consequences of Land System Change
2.1: What are the Critical Feedbacks to the Coupled Earth System from Ecosystem Changes?
2.2: How Do Changes in Ecosystem Structure and Functioning Affect the Delivery of Ecosystem Services?
2.3: How are Ecosystem Services Linked to Human Well-being?
2.4: How Do People Respond at Various Scales and in Different Contexts to Changes in Ecosystem Service Provision?
Theme 3: land/resource sustainability
3.1: What are the Critical Pathways of Change in Land Systems?
3.2: How Do the Vulnerability and Resilience of Land Systems to Hazards and Disturbances Vary in Response to Changes in Human–Environment Interactions?
3.3: how institutional arrangements make the difference between trajectories that are sustainable and those that are not?
PART II How can we adapt the GLP approach to the Third Pole using GIS concepts and technologies?
The GLP analytical scheme thus draws together a wide range of biogeophysical and social disciplines through a compelling rhetoric of whole system function, but it is on the other hand spatially undefined. The elements within it certainly exist within space but it is not obvious a priori what spatial scales are relevant. The diagram could conceivably applied to one farmstead or to the entire Third Pole. In order to actually implement this scheme, we will need to how this system description actually manifests within geographic space.
Over the last three decades GIS and remotely sensed data have allowed us to to obtain not just representative, but rather complete information about the surface of the earth. In addition, it has supported the development of spatial models for geographic variables that are difficult to measure.
If the GLP analytical scheme is one way to characterize the entire land system, then so to is GIS. These two approaches use different vocabularies but are in fact referring to the same object.
Brief Introduction to Dr. Greenwood:
Dr. Greenwood has served as MRI s Exe-cutive Director since June 2004. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, an M.S. in Range Science from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College. Prior to MRI, he served as Science Advisor to the Resources Secretary of California and Climate and Bioenergy Advisor for the California Department of Forestry. The issues Dr. Greenwood dealt with during his time in California were climate change, especially policy development for both mitigation and adaptation, and natural resource management, which in California is an amalgam of forest health, wildfire, endangered species and biomass energy issues. During this time, he represented the state on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, a major interdisciplinary assessment of the mountain range for the US Congress. Prior to 1990, he worked in international natural resource management, principally in Africa and South Asia. He is fluent in English and French.
The origin of Mountain Research Initiative (MRI):
MRI arose out of discussions among members of the two major umbrella organizations for global change research, the IGBP and the IHDP. It has been endorsed by UNESCO_MAB, GTOS, and by the Global Land Project of the newly founded Earth System Science Partnership. The MRI has been supported since 2004 by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
（reported by ZHANG Xiaomin）
The MRI used this diagram taken from the Global Land Project Science Plan as a framework by which to link together disciplinary studies.
The Global Land Project saw three major research themes with this scheme. The first, shown with green arrows, involves the dynamics of land systems. The second, shown with red arrows, involves the consequences of land system change. And finally, the third, shown with blue arrows, involves land/resource sustainability. Each of these themes contains within it a set of key questions:
Theme 1: Dynamics of Land Systems
1.1: How Do Globalisation and Population Change Affect
1.2: How Do Changes in Land Management Decisions and Practices Affect Biogeochemistry, Biodiversity, Biophysical Properties and Disturbance Regimes of Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosytems?
1.3: How Do the Atmospheric, Biogeochemical and Biophysical Dimensions of Global Change Affect Ecosystem Structure and Function?
Theme 2: Consequences of Land System Change
2.1: What are the Critical Feedbacks to the Coupled Earth System from Ecosystem Changes?
2.2: How Do Changes in Ecosystem Structure and Functioning Affect the Delivery of Ecosystem Services?
2.3: How are Ecosystem Services Linked to Human Well-being?
2.4: How Do People Respond at Various Scales and in Different Contexts to Changes in Ecosystem Service Provision?
Theme 3: land/resource sustainability
3.1: What are the Critical Pathways of Change in Land Systems?
3.2: How Do the Vulnerability and Resilience of Land Systems to Hazards and Disturbances Vary in Response to Changes in Human–Environment Interactions?
3.3: how institutional arrangements make the difference between trajectories that are sustainable and those that are not?
PART II How can we adapt the GLP approach to the Third Pole using GIS concepts and technologies?
The GLP analytical scheme thus draws together a wide range of biogeophysical and social disciplines through a compelling rhetoric of whole system function, but it is on the other hand spatially undefined. The elements within it certainly exist within space but it is not obvious a priori what spatial scales are relevant. The diagram could conceivably applied to one farmstead or to the entire Third Pole. In order to actually implement this scheme, we will need to how this system description actually manifests within geographic space.
Over the last three decades GIS and remotely sensed data have allowed us to to obtain not just representative, but rather complete information about the surface of the earth. In addition, it has supported the development of spatial models for geographic variables that are difficult to measure.
If the GLP analytical scheme is one way to characterize the entire land system, then so to is GIS. These two approaches use different vocabularies but are in fact referring to the same object.
Brief Introduction to Dr. Greenwood:
Dr. Greenwood has served as MRI s Exe-cutive Director since June 2004. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, an M.S. in Range Science from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College. Prior to MRI, he served as Science Advisor to the Resources Secretary of California and Climate and Bioenergy Advisor for the California Department of Forestry. The issues Dr. Greenwood dealt with during his time in California were climate change, especially policy development for both mitigation and adaptation, and natural resource management, which in California is an amalgam of forest health, wildfire, endangered species and biomass energy issues. During this time, he represented the state on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, a major interdisciplinary assessment of the mountain range for the US Congress. Prior to 1990, he worked in international natural resource management, principally in Africa and South Asia. He is fluent in English and French.
The origin of Mountain Research Initiative (MRI):
MRI arose out of discussions among members of the two major umbrella organizations for global change research, the IGBP and the IHDP. It has been endorsed by UNESCO_MAB, GTOS, and by the Global Land Project of the newly founded Earth System Science Partnership. The MRI has been supported since 2004 by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
（reported by ZHANG Xiaomin）