Transcript Criteria for Future Earth Research

Future Earth workshop – Kuala Lumpur
Breakout session 2: Research priorities and
opportunities to strengthen capabilities within
Future Earth in Asia and the Pacific
Key messages
Participants
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Joyashree Roy (chair)
Anantha Duraiappah (TT)
Yukio Himayama
Cindy Shirata
Nobuko Saigusa
Bach Tan Sinh
Mohd Nordin Hasan
David Black
Harini Nagendra
Yuan Tseh Lee
Michael Manton
Kon-Kee Liu
Anne-Sophie Stevance
1. What are the regional research questions for each of the 3
research themes that need to be answered to achieve your
vision for Future Earth in the Asia-Pacific region?
1. Global development
Livelihood security, social equity and sense of place and identity are key
issues for Asia-Pacific
• Coastal hazards, vulnerability and impacts on communities and
new development plans
• Climate change
• Link between GEC and disaster and how to increase resilience
• Urbanisation versus rural
• 3 unique areas: coastal, semi-arid and mountains
• Key social pressures: urbanisation, rapid economic growth,
population, consumption, global connectivity
• Competing demands for water and land
• Security as primary concern of policy-makers: food sovereignty,
energy self-reliance, water security, livelihood security (flow of
income)
1. What are the regional research questions for each of the 3
research themes that need to be answered to achieve your
vision for Future Earth in the Asia-Pacific region?
2. Dynamic planet
1. Defining and identifying regional thresholds and hotspots (which are
changing) from both natural and social perspectives
2. Human trends in those critical areas
• Natural characteristics of the region: sismic risks, monsoons,
cyclons, heat stress
• Identify human risks and redefining risk zones
• Impacts of GEC
• Include communities’ knowledge
3. Mapping and tracking social indicators
4. Developing scenarios at multiple temporal and spatial scales
5. Analysis of communication problems in the past
6. Enhanced communication strategies and interpretation
1. What are the regional research questions for each of the 3
research themes that need to be answered to achieve your
vision for Future Earth in the Asia-Pacific region?
3. Transformation towards sustainability
1. Social transformation and social tipping points
2. Institutional changes (driving forces: government, communities?)
3. Scientific and technological changes and their social embedding
• Understanding past interface between technology and social
trends and steps that led to transformation
• Identifying social impacts of technology
Linkages between local transformations and achieving global
sustainability
Actors who make transformation happen
Bringing together transformation studies and governance studies
2. What are the set of capabilities needed to answer these
questions?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Need to bring together natural, social sciences and engineering
Networks of researchers, universities/ institutions, young students
Observation networks
Mobility of researchers
Consistent long term socio-economic data
Systematic observation and monitoring and access to data
Observation, monitoring, data management, modelling and analysis
Scenario development at various scales
3. What could be early research activities that would
demonstrate the new research that Future Earth seek to
foster in the region?
• Prerequisite: knowledge of existing research activities
• Need for a research gap analysis in the region
• Rapid assessment of MDGs achievements with a view to establishing
SDGs within the principles of Future Earth
• Integrating sustainability education, curricula and networksin traditional
subjects
• On-going studies on social experiments in the energy, transport and
water sectors, also low carbon cities
• Examples of policy relevant studies: looking at linkages and trade-offs
between biodiversity, food security and energy,
• Integrate social sciences in climate change studies
• Building on the blue carbon (coastal sinks) inventory and assessment
activities
• Inventory of social experiments which are delivering environmental
benefits
• Downstream effects of changes in the hydrology of the Himalaya and TP