Source: IFAS Blog
Natural and agricultural disasters can lead to massive human migrations, and a University of Florida scientist will lead a group that will improve our ability to predict the patterns of those movements.
Rachata Muneepeerakul, an associate professor in agricultural and biological engineering for the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study human movement patterns. UF’s portion of the grant is about $3 million. The balance of the grant is for the work done by researchers at other universities with whom Muneepeerakul will collaborate.
The Department of Defense wants to know as far in advance as possible when and where these mass migrations are likeliest to happen. That way, the federal government can know when and where to deploy military force and where to send humanitarian aid, as just two possible examples, he said.
“Migration can potentially cause many problems: social or political tension, depletion of resources, crime, etc.,” Muneepeerakul said. “If we cannot adequately predict migration patterns, we won’t be able to devise plans to deal with these problems and will be caught off guard.”
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