(both spatial and temporal) of extreme or gradual events.
- To prepare for rare extreme events, classical problems in operations
research need to be expanded to deal with uncertainty. Furthermore,
mathematical models are needed to help understand how human
health will be impacted by events like heat waves.
- We need clear, mathematically precise criteria to measure biodiversity
that are robust even given the difficulties of gathering data in
sometimes harsh environments. We need ways of combining multiple
measures to create an overall picture of biodiversity. We then need
methods to use these measures to attain sustainable ecosystems. All
of this must be done in the context of uncertain, but potentially large
impacts on biodiversity of changing climate, and global environmental
change more generally.
- We need models of animal migration that take climate change and
other human disruptions into account. New tools such as network
theory and others might offer an opportunity to develop richer models
of migration than our existing ones.
- We need mathematical models that will describe how agriculture both
affects and is affected by the availability and quality of fresh water.
Improved models of ocean acidification are needed. We need
improved monitoring methods using statistics, machine learning and
remote sensing to allow us to detect changes in the health of bodies of
water much more quickly.
