Coastal SEES Collaborative Research: Integration of human behavior and perception into a risk-based microbial water quality management approach

沿海 SEES 合作研究：将人类行为和感知融入基于风险的微生物水质管理方法

• 批准号: 1745934
• 负责人: Maryann Cairns
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1745934&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Coastal; SEES; Collaborative; Research; Integration

Exposure to wastewater-related pathogens results in millions of cases of illness and an economic burden of 12 billion USD annually worldwide. Since 90 percent of the world?s household wastewater enters the environment without being disinfected, coastal beaches are often polluted by wastewater, which can greatly impact the health of people that swim and play at the beach. Despite scientific advancements, coastal water quality monitoring approaches rely on outdated compliance practices that do not accurately identify public health risks. This project will directly measure pathogen concentrations and identify behaviors that put individuals at risk of illness from coastal water use. These risks will be quantified and assessed from cultural and biological perspectives, and subsequently used to recommend societal changes that promote benefits to human health and the sustainability of coastal ecosystems. This innovative study will advance the goals of the NSF Coastal SEES program by identifying practices that might expose people to pathogens in wastewater, improving sustainable water management approaches in the tropics, and recommending economically- and socially-feasible interventions to minimize human health risks. This project will engage many different stakeholders including community members, national governments, and international organizations in order to effectively initiate improvements in coastal water management. Community and K-12 education will be promoted through the creation of bilingual, coastal water quality modules and the interdisciplinary research community dedicated to improving water quality will be expanded through the training of three graduate students, twelve undergraduate students, and one postdoctoral researcher. This project is the first to characterize microbial water quality and associated risk of illness using a holistic water management approach (combination of sanitary surveys, targeted water quality analyses, and quantitative microbial risk assessment), which incorporates ethnographic and epidemiological studies to inform and validate microbial risk assessments. Going beyond simple, end-point risk assessments, the researchers will use exploratory quantitative microbial risk assessment to demonstrate how advancing local understanding and building knowledge regarding risk from coastal recreation can, when coupled with appropriate technological and social interventions, improve microbial water quality management and public health at a local, regional, and even global level. In collaboration with identified governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, the recommended societal changes will be strategically communicated to individuals locally and regionally. Using the polluted Costa Rican Jacó beach as a model system, this project will provide strategies to enhance coastal microbial water management worldwide by identifying improved household-wastewater pollution indicators for tropical regions, implementing an emerging holistic approach to water quality management, and incorporating the critical roles that human activities and perception play in mitigating microbial risk of illness.

接触废水相关病原体每年导致全球数百万例疾病和 120 亿美元的经济负担。由于世界上 90% 的家庭废水未经消毒就进入环境，沿海海滩经常受到废水污染。尽管科学进步，但沿海水质监测方法仍然依赖于过时的合规做法，无法准确识别公共卫生风险。该项目将直接测量病原体浓度并识别导致公共卫生风险的行为。处于危险中的个人这些风险将从文化和生物学角度进行量化和评估，随后用于建议促进人类健康和沿海生态系统可持续性的社会变革。沿海 SEES 计划通过识别可能使人们接触废水中病原体的做法，改进热带地区的可持续水管理方法，并建议经济和社会上可行的干预措施，以尽量减少人类健康风险。该项目将吸引许多不同的利益相关者，包括社区成员、各国政府和国际组织将通过创建双语沿海水质模块来促进社区和 K-12 教育，并通过培训三名毕业生来扩大致力于改善水质的跨学科研究社区。该项目是第一个利用整体水管理方法（卫生调查、有针对性的水质分析和定量微生物风险评估相结合）来表征微生物水质和相关疾病风险的项目。其中融合了民族志和流行病学研究为微生物风险评估提供信息和验证，除了简单的终点风险评估之外，研究人员还将利用探索性定量微生物风险评估来展示如何在与适当的技术相结合的情况下促进当地对沿海娱乐风险的理解和建立知识。与确定的政府和非政府利益相关者合作，将建议的社会变革战略性地传达给当地和区域的个人。被污染的哥斯达黎加雅科海滩作为一个示范系统，该项目将提供战略，通过确定改进的热带地区家庭废水污染指标，实施新兴的整体水质管理方法，并结合人类的关键作用，加强全球沿海微生物水管理。活动和感知在减轻微生物疾病风险方面发挥着作用。