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| Geography grant looks to further research in climate change |
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| Written by Lianna Shepherd - Argonaut | ||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 07 April 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Vladimir Aizen’s love of mountain climbing first drew him to geography. That fascination has now manifested itself into more than $2 million in research grants over the past three years. Aizen was recently awarded a $885,000 grant from NASA for a research project to diagnose changes in alpine water storages and land surface degradation in the Pamir mountains and Amu Dariya River basin. “NASA supports research not just from the United States, but all over the world,” he said. “We cannot separate any places in this world, not when we’re talking about science…all of us are connected in some way, we’re interconnected.” Pamir has served both geographically and historically as a border between China and the Islamic world. Aizen said it served as one of the passes of the Silk Way used by Marco Polo. “Snow and glaciers from Pamir mountains feed the largest Central Asian Amu Dariya River that flow to Aral Sea,” he said. Aizen’s research in Asia has been widely supported by several national and international agencies. Aizen and his team use modern satellite and glacier ice-coring technology to achieve their goal. Aizen came to the university in 2001 as part of a government research initiate. A Russian geography professor, Aizen’s research has taken him across the globe. “I’ve spent most of my life working in Asia, my field has taken me to China, Tibet, the Ukraine,” he said. Aizen’s primary research emphasis is the potential consequences of climate change on the Alpine Ecosystems of the northern Hemisphere, which is home to the vast majority of the Earth’s human population. “We try to understand how climate change has affected water resources,” Aizen said. “In the ice we can trace climate change hundreds of years back.” Trapped in the ice are environmental pollutants that layer on top of each other dating back thousands of years. The NASA grant is expected to be used to facilitate the study of climate change impact on water resources and land surface degradation. Aizen is one of five professors in the geography department to receive grants this year. Harley Johansen, the department head, said that a reason behind the success of the professors could be the practical applicative nature of the research. For the last 10 years the department has emphasized the study of climatology. “Climatology is a big part of geography and as we know it’s a big issue in the world right now,” he said. “We’re not looking at climate change itself but its effect on society both globally and locally.” Johansen said that he thinks people often forget the practicality of geography. “We do a lot more than look at maps, there really is a lot involved in this field,” he said. Aizen’s research also focuses on natural processes in the arid and semi-arid regions of Asia and their possible social and economical consequences in industrial and pre-industrial time. The department currently has a variety of projects under way including methods to predict the effects of climate change on a regional scale. Johansen said a special feature of the UI geography program is the involvement of both undergraduate and graduate students with these projects. “Including undergraduates makes sure that everyone gets that hands on experience, that’s part of what makes geography so unique,” he said.  Add as favorites (29) | Views: 371
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