"Non-specialist GIS: delivering GCM output to a whole new community".

Dr. John Corbett
President of Mud Springs Geographers, Inc.

Time: 10:30am
Location: Foothills Laboratory 2 - 1001

The debate on climate change ranges from the emotive to the practical. A practical perspective is found in the planning efforts underway by the UN. The NAPA (National Adaptation Program of Action) is the mechanism to support development of mitigation strategies in the event of climate change targeted specifically toward LDC's (Least Developed Countries). These groups require a range of information to meet their goals - and that information includes scenarios on climate change. Managing such data is yet another challenge and easy-to-use GIS tools offer some capacity to contribute. The delivery of GCM output to this community of NAPA teams will serve to highlight the multiple ways in which specialized science and tools, when disseminated and shared, can contribute and make an impact far beyond the community of origin.

Dr. Corbett began his career with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and was first based in Mexico then in Kenya. As an agricultural climatologist, mapping technology is a natural fit for the research and development efforts pursued by the CGIAR system. Crop, weather, soil interaction research contributes to development through implementation of appropriate methods and technology. The same efforts reach all the way to planning and the mitigation of the effect of climate change. After 6 years, Dr. Corbett joined Texas A&M and the Blackland Research Center based in Temple, Texas. From Texas A&M, Dr. Corbett and team continued the effort to deliver mapping systems of use for sustainable development with an emphasis on agriculture. Five years later, in 1999, a private company was formed focused on crop-climate interactions and the development of user-friendly mapping tools.