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Reception under the patronage of HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal
to mark the launch of the Leverhulme Trust Project 'Water,
Life and Civilisation' headed by Reading Universitywith CBRL
October 26 2004
CBRL Amman held a reception on October 26, 2004 to
announce the launch of a new five-year research project in Jordan funded by the
Leverhulme Trust. The multi-disciplinary project,
organised by the head of the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at
Reading University, Professor Steven Mithen, will assess the changes in the
hydrological climate in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and its
impact on human communities. It is in the great
river valleys of this region - the Jordan, Euphrates, Nile and Indus - that the
ancient civilisations arose, while the plight of this region under a changing
climactic and hydrological regime is central to global ecology, economics and
politics today. The project aims to work on two
levels: Firstly it will develop and evaluate a climate model for the whole of
the MENA region to include a comprehensive study of its implications for past,
present and future human settlement. Secondly it
will carry out a detailed case study of the interplay between climate, water and
human society from 20,000BC to AD2100 in the Jordan Valley. This will involve
the development of a hydrological model, palaeoenvironmental studies of
landscape and vegetation change, archaeological studies of human settlement,
diet health and water management, and an examination of current issues regarding
water usuage in the context of industrial, agricultural and tourist development.
Further
Information
Project Website:
www.waterlifecivilisation.org
Contact:Professor Steven Mithen
(Lead PI)
School of
Human and Environmental Sciences
University of Reading
Reading
RG6 6AB
Dr Emily Black (Project Manager)
Centre
for Global Atmospheric Modelling
Department of Meteorology
University of Reading
Reading
RG6 6BB
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