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Title  : NSF AWARDS $16.8 MILLION TO STUDY HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL CHANGE
Type   : Press Release
NSF Org: OD / LPA
Date   : August 6, 1996
File   : pr9640


Media contact:                                 August 6, 1996
George Chartier                                  NSF PR 96-40
(703) 306-1070/gchartie@nsf.gov

Program contact:
Cheryl Eavey
(703) 306-1729/ceavey@nsf.gov


                NSF AWARDS $16.8 MILLION TO STUDY
               HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL CHANGE

     What are the results -- both good and bad -- when humans
and their environment interact?

   Six research centers and teams of scientists, assisted by
$16.8 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF), will
study such complex interactions and seek some useful answers.

     "Population growth, environmental changes, natural
resources, public health, technological advances, social
organizations, and political and economic shifts are among
critical factors," says Cheryl Eavey, who coordinates NSF's
Human Dimensions of Global Change research program.  "By
combining research in the natural and the social sciences, we
hope to discover ways to better predict the impact of changes
on populations and their environment."


     The six new NSF awards are:

·      $6.3 million over five years to Indiana University to
establish a Center for the Study of Institutions, Population
and Environmental Change.  The focus is a long-term study of
how institutions and humans at the household and community
level affect deforestation and replacement.  Under the
direction of anthropologist Emilio F. Moran and political
scientist Elinor Ostrom, studies will employ satellite and
aerial photo data, data bases, surveys and interviews. Media
contact: Jeff Austin (812) 855-3911

  ·   $5.8 million over five years to Carnegie Mellon University
  to support its Center for Integrated Study of the Human
  Dimensions of Global Change. Engineers M. Granger Morgan and
  Hadi Dowlatabadi will coordinate activities of more than 30
  researchers from 14 institutions in seven nations.  The
  center will provide a framework for integrated analysis,
  foster educational services for citizen groups and schools,
  promote worldwide discourse on global change issues among
  researchers and the public, encourage collaboration between
  social and natural scientists, and improve data analysis.
  Media contact: Debra Jacob (412) 268-8495

  ·   $1.9 million over five years to Harvard University to
  support studies of societal responses to large, long-term
  global environmental change.  Under the leadership of the
  University Committee on the Environment, the project will
  involve scholars from Carnegie Mellon, Cornell and Duke
  universities and from the International Institute for Applied
  Systems Analysis.  They will examine how assessments of
  global change interact with policymaking, politics and
  negotiations, and how to improve the process. Media contact:
  Steve Singer (617) 495-1115

  ·  $1.6 million over five years to Pennsylvania State
  University to support its Methods for Integrated Regional
  Assessment Project under the direction of geographer C.
  Gregory Knight in the Earth System Science Center.  In
  collaboration with researchers at the University of Arizona,
  the project will develop methods to assess regional
  consequences of global change. Media contact: Andrea Elyse
  Messer (814) 865-9481

·    $999,600 over five years to  the University of Arizona, for
  an economics study of water allocation. Economist Vernon L.
  Smith will direct research on environmental change and
  adaptive "smart" markets, especially in arid lands.  He will
  initially apply his trade model in California. Media contact:
  Julieta Gonzalez (520) 626-4336

·    $985,000 over five years to the National Bureau of Economic
  Research, to work with the Yale Center for Global Change and
  Austria's International Institute of Applied Systems
  Analysis, to organize conferences and workshops designed to
  encourage domestic and international cooperative research on
  human dimensions of global change. Economist William D.
  Nordhaus will oversee the development of the project. Media
  contact: Gila Reinstein (203) 432-1325

                             -NSF-