Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)
Permanent URI for this collection
GSS fosters transdisciplinary study of the dynamic interplay between natural and social systems. Faculty in this area collaborate to discover creative solutions to critical social problems emergent from human activity and environmental change, in areas such as freshwater and coastal water systems, rural environments, infectious disease, and food production and safety. Work in this area also embraces equity in the human condition by seeking the equitable distribution and availability of physical safety and well-being, psychological well-being, respect for human dignity, and access to crucial material and social resources throughout the world’s diverse communities.
Browse
Browsing Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS) by Content Type "Proposal"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Advancing the Global Land Grant Institution: Creating a Virtual Environment to Re-envision Extension and Advance GSS-related Research, Education, and CollaborationHall, Ralph P.; Polys, Nicholas F.; Sforza, Peter M.; Eubank, Stephen D.; Lewis, Bryan L.; Krometis, Leigh-Anne H.; Pollyea, Ryan M.; Schoenholtz, Stephen H.; Sridhar, Venkataramana; Crowder, Van; Lipsey, John; Christie, Maria Elisa; Glasson, George E.; Scherer, Hannah H.; Davis, A. Jack; Dunay, Robert J.; King, Nathan T.; Muelenaer, Andre A.; Muelenaer, Penelope; Rist, Cassidy; Wenzel, Sophie (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)The vision for this project has emerged from several years of research, teaching, and service in Africa and holds the potential to internationalize education at Virginia Tech and in our partner institutions in Malawi. The vision is simple, to develop a state-of-the-art, data rich, virtual decision-support and learning environment that enables local-, regional-, and national-level actors in developed and developing regions to make decisions that improve resilience and sustainability. Achieving these objectives will require a system that can combine biogeophysical and sociocultural data in a way that enables actors to understand and leverage these data to enhance decision-making at various levels. The project will begin by focusing on water, agricultural, and health systems in Malawi, and can be expanded over time to include any sector or system in any country. The core ideas are inherently scalable...
- Ecological and Human Health in Rural CommunitiesGohlke, Julia M.; Kolivras, Korine N.; Krometis, Leigh-Anne H.; Marmagas, Susan West; Marr, Linsey C.; Satterwhite, Emily M.; Angermeier, Paul L.; Clark, Susan F.; Ranganathan, Shyam; Schoenholtz, Stephen H.; Swarup, Samarth; Thompson, Christopher K. (2017-05-15)Environmental exposures to chemicals and microbes in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the objects we touch are now recognized to be responsible for 90% of all human illness. This suggests that well-documented health disparities within and between nations have significant geographic and ecological as well as socioeconomic dimensions that must be addressed in order to secure human well-being at local to global scales. While urbanization is a primary driver of global change, it is widely acknowledged that urbanization is dependent on large-scale resource extraction and agriculture in rural communities. Despite considerable evidence linking human industrial and agricultural activities to ecological health (i.e. health of an ecosystem including the non-human organisms that inhabit it), very little data are available directly linking exposure to environmental pollution and human health in rural areas, which have repeatedly been identified as subject to the most extreme health disparities...
- Integrative Analyses of Environmental Factors Impacting Animal and Human Health Through Perturbations of Microbial CommunitiesCaswell, Clayton C.; Ahmed, S. Ansar; Sriranganathan, Nammalwar; Allen, Irving C.; Luo, Xin; Meng, Xiang-Jin; Theus, Michelle H.; Yuan, Lijuan; Hungerford, Laura L.; Pierson, Bill; Rist, Cassidy (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)The term ‘microbiome’ defines the vast microscopic communities collectively composed of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and eukaryotic protozoans that inhabit myriad niches, including environmental locales, as well as the surfaces and organ systems of animals and humans. Recent empirical evidence clearly demonstrates the substantial role that microbiomes play in facilitating the homeostasis of complex biological systems, and as such, perturbation of these microbial communities can lead to dysregulation of environmental ecosystems, significant declines in animal and human health, and the emergence of detrimental conditions, such as infectious diseases, inflammatory disorders, and neurodegenerative aliments. A variety of factors are involved in shifting the composition and complexity (i.e., the functionality) of microbiomes, including the contamination of soil, water, and food sources with toxicants, pharmaceuticals, and antimicrobial compounds...
- Managing Landscapes to Meet Emerging Global ChallengesBadgley, Brian D.; Daniels, W. Lee; Day, Susan D.; Eick, Matthew J.; Ervin, Erik H.; Steele, Meredith K.; Stewart, Ryan D.; Strahm, Brian D.; Xia, Kang; Zipper, Carl E. (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)Our vision is to create a program dedicated to accelerating innovation that improves the quality, efficiency, and resilience of human dominated landscapes, including our cities, farms, and industrial lands. Humans dramatically alter and manipulate the global landscape for food and fiber production, mineral extraction, urban development, waste disposal and many other purposes. Impacts to essential ecosystem functions and values range from local (e.g. mining and land development) to global (e.g. carbon emissions) with a clear need for development of appropriate management systems for their mitigation. By using a systems approach that interfaces environmental scientists and ecologists with relevant disciplines, this proposed signature area within Global Systems Science (GSS) will build upon existing group strengths in soil remediation, water quality, hydrology, urban soils, land reclamation, agroecosystem management, forest ecology, wetland restoration, soil-waste management and integrated modeling across multiple spatial and temporal scales to develop a more holistic approach to landscape management. We will also...