BIARI at Brown 2011

Climate Change and Its Impacts: Water in a Changing Climate

In this Institute we focused on changes in the supply of and demand for water in the 21st century, due both to changes in regional climate and to human population growth and development patterns. Major themes included predicted changes in regional hydrologic cycles; resilience of existing social, economic, civil, ecological and agricultural systems to likely changes; the potential of global and local institutions to increase the resilience of these systems; and what can be learned from one region to inform effective design of policies and water management structures in other regions. Throughout the Institute, participants focused on developing interdisciplinary research through communication and joint development of projects.

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Conveners

LEAH VANWEY

Associate Professor of Sociology at Brown University. Professor VanWey studies the dynamics of frontier settlement and consolidation in the Brazilian Amazon. She asks how we can simultaneously protect the Amazon's precious environmental resources while promoting equitable social and economic development.

JIM RUSSELL

Associate Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University. Jim's research focuses in Paleolimnology, especially large African lakes. He has studied the paleoclimatology of Lake Edward, Uganda-Congo; piston cores from Lake Bosumatwi, Ghana; piston cores and seismic data from Lake Tanganyika, Africa, and have developed methods for Paleolimnology analysis.