Moved by maths
Flooding and desertification – some of more severe aspects of climate change – will most likely lead to the need to relocate millions of people from affected areas.
The model proposed by the mathematicians allows government bodies to calculate the amount of people that would need to be relocated, taking on board financial and societal concerns.
"To make adaptation a success, part of the population must be prepared to adapt to new or different work opportunities and living conditions and others may have to be relocated in a planned way to new locations that require accepting different working and environmental conditions. Our methodology lets us find the fraction of people who would be relocated and who would stay in an optimal manner," the team concluded.
The full report is published in the International Journal of Mathematics and Operational Research.
It all adds up
Meet some of our Role Models with maths in their background.
You’ve read it. Now review it.
Date Published: April 02, 2009
More by this source
|
Print
|
Send to a friend
|
Rate & Comment
|
Keep up to date
If you found this item fun or informative, please let others know. Simply send to a friend or recommend it to even more people - on any of the following sites:
Latest Science News | reddit | digg.com | del.icio.us | rollyo | stumbleupon
More on maths...
The science of fun
In 1905, Britain's greatest puzzlist, Henry Ernest Dudeney, demonstrated his most famous creation at a meeting of the Royal Society in London. The Haberdasher's Puzzle is an equilateral triangle that is cut into four pieces that can be rearranged into a square. Sounds ordinary enough. Yet Dudeney's genius was that he connected the pieces together with hinges to form a chain - such that folding one way gets you a triangle and folding the other gets you the square. The "hinging" property of the Haberdasher's Puzzle, which Dudeney had made out of mahogany and bronze, has fascinated and delighted mathematicians for more than a century.
Maths gets wet
New formula explains surface wetness.
Better maps with maths
New algorithm can generate interactive mobile phone maps.



