Overview
The region of Monsoon Asia covers South, Southeast and East Asia . It is a region where the major features of landscape, such as vegetation, soil and water system developed in a monsoon climate. The monsoon rainfall is the main water resource of the region. But the high variability of monsoon climate causes a high frequency of climate related disasters, such as the floods, drought and heat waves which often bring about great damage to the region. At the same time, Monsoon Asia is a region with the most active human development. It has a history of more than 5000 years civilization. It also has the highest population density of the world. It also had the most rapid development in last decades and plans to continue rapid development incoming century. Therefore the human activities of the monsoon Asia region have and will have significant impacts on the environmental conditions, not only regionally but also globally.
The concept of an integrated Asian monsoon system was originally proposed by Asian scientists (e.g. Fu, 1996). From the earth system science point of view, the Asia monsoon system is a coupled physical/biological/chemical/social system (Fu, 1998, 2000). The Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study was proposed by Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and became the first IRS project under its leadership in 2003. The first planning meeting of Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study was held in Bangkok in March of 2003 when the acronym of MAIRS was coined.
MAIRS is a new regional consortium for the integrated study of earth system processes in the Asia Monsoon Region. Research projects and Working Groups are the primary producers of research results. The MAIRS consortium is guided by a Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) and supported by an International Program Office (IPO) to reach its objectives effectively and efficiently. MAIRS was implemented by START on request of the ESSP and the GEC-programs.
The conceptual framework for the MAIRS program is as following:
MAIRS Vision
The vision of MAIRS is “To significantly advance understanding of the interactions between the human-natural components of the overall environment in the monsoon Asian region and implication of global earth system, in order to support the strategies for sustainable development”.
MAIRS Objectives
- To better understand how human activities in regions are interacting with and altering natural regional variability of the atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine components of the environment;
- To contribute to the provision of a sound scientific basis for sustainable regional development; and
- To develop a predictive capability of estimating changes in global-regional linkages in the Earth System and to recognize on a sound scientific basis the future consequences of such changes.
Lead questions for research
• Is the Asian monsoon system resilient to this human transformation of land, water and air?
• Are societies in the region becoming more, or less, vulnerable to changes in the Asian monsoon?
• What are the likely consequences of changes in the monsoon Asia region on the global climate system?
There are six cross-cutting issues of environmental change: water, energy, food security, air quality and health, natural disasters and biodiversity. These key issues are important in many areas but have different aspects and relative importance in different geographic zones.To answer the lead questions about key issues in an integrated manner, we propose four research themes:
• Rapid transformation of land and marine resources in coastal Zones.
• Multiple stresses on ecosystems and biophysical resources in high Mountain Zones.
• Vulnerability of ecosystems in Semi-arid Zones due to changing climate and land use.
• Changes in resource use and emissions due to rapid urbanization in Urban Zones.
MAIRS-IPO
The International Program Office supports and promotes the full implementation of MAIRS. It does this by
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Seeking the views of the MAIRS Steering Committee and encouraging their wide adoption. The MAIRS Science Plan, in development, will be instrumental.
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Promoting research, capacity building and awareness raising activities in Asia with respect to regional changes. In particular about the impacts of mankind on the Monsoon system and vice versa and within the framework of the Science Plan.
For research, this implies
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providing meta-data bases of MAIRS-relevant projects, contacts, literature, primary data bases and software
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assistance in organizing conferences, workshops, meetings
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assisting in reporting and publication in MAIRS projects
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promoting visits of staff-members among MAIRS-partners across the region
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maintaining links with STARTs programs in Asia and with the Earth System Science Partnership (IGBP, WCRP, IHDP, and DIVERSITAS);
- assisting in fund raising for new MAIRS-projects
For capacity building, this implies the increase of theoretical and practical knowledge of earth sciences among scientists, students and institutions across the region.
For awareness raising activities, the IPO will promote widespread communication of popularized scientific facts and insights.
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Promoting that MAIRS projects deliver outputs that (i) are valuable for its various clients among the science organizations in Monsoon Asia and elsewhere, for organizations that can implement recommendations, and for the general public, and that (ii) these products are effectively disseminated and communicated.
The IPO has started its activities in Jan. 2005 with Prof. Shao Liqin (formerly Director of Department of High and New Technology Industrialisation of MOST), Dr. Ailikun, climatologist, and Yang Ying (Information Officer). In October 2005, Prof. Dr. Frits Penning de Vries, production ecologist, joined as its Executive Director.
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