Climate change is expected to have widespread effects on societies across the world. While it is difficult to predict exactly how we will be affected in the future, we can gain a better understanding if we study earlier extreme climate events and their effects on society.

Extreme climate and conflicts

A great fear is that climate extremes, in the future, will lead to a world with more armed conflicts and refugee displacement. The civil war in Syria that followed a severe drought is viewed as an important example of this.

Drought’s effects on agriculture 

There are, however, much we do not know about what happened in Syria during and after the drought. This project aims to study the drought’s effect on agriculture and rural population through a combination of remote sensing and interview studies.

Reduce vulnerability

This will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms that link climate, land systems, society, and conflict, which can provide important information about how we can reduce vulnerability in the future. The project will push the field of land system science forward by contributing with a detailed and integrated study of land system changes in the context of drought and conflict. An understanding of this will help us predict future changes to the land system and allow us to assess the needs for post-conflict rebuilding of more drought-resilient societies.

2020-01-24