CALEM
Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management
Projects
CALEM projects fall into two main categories:
- Projects are developed with seed funding from the center and, if successful, they become independent projects or programs managed by a Principal Investigator from one of DRI’s research divisions. A particularly successful example of such a project is the Integrated Desert Terrain Forecasting for Military Operations, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office’s Environmental Sciences Division. The project aims to help the Army develop a tool to predict and anticipate changes in desert terrain conditions that works rapidly and accurately. Ultimately the tools will supply vehicle drivers, helicopter pilots, armored-vehicle operators, and strategists with information they need to avoid hazards and meet their objectives safely and securely. For more information - http://www.dri.edu/Home/Features/text/DesertTerrain.htm
- Projects are developed by the Director of CALEM and are managed by the Director as a Principal Investigator or co-PI. A current example of such a project is:
Global Center of Excellence for Arid Lands (GCOE). This is a 5-year project funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT). The project involves collaboration for research, education, and capacity building between the Arid Lands Research Center (Tottori University, Japan); the International Center for Agricultural Research in Arid Areas (ICARDA), and DRI. DRI will be conducting joint research projects with the ALRC (e.g. dust generation in Mongolia) and hosting graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from Tottori University. In addition, DRI faculty will conduct short courses and intensive teaching at Tottori University. The first such course (on environmental restoration) was completed in February 2008 by Kumud Acharya and Mark Stone of DRI’s Division of Hydrologic Sciences.
Contact
Dr. Nick Lancaster (faculty web page)
775.673.7304
Nick.Lancaster@dri.edu