Networking for Environmental Sustainability in Arid Region Urban Communities

干旱地区城市社区环境可持续性网络

• 批准号: 1929950
• 负责人: Danny Reible
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-06-01 至 2020-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1929950&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Networking; Environmental; Sustainability; Arid; Region

The sustainability of small- to mid-sized urban centers (population between 50,000 and 500,000 residents) is increasingly under threat. These communities often lack the financial, technical, and human resources to adequately address those threats. Small to mid-sized urban centers are much more common than the megacities that receive more attention, and cumulatively serve as home for more people. In addition, rural America depends upon small urban centers to drive the rural economy and meet important basic needs such as health services. A workshop is proposed with an overarching goal to conceptualize the sustainability challenges that face the many urban centers that serve as the backbone of rural communities. Additionally, this workshop will focus on urban centers in arid and semi-arid regions where water of adequate quality and quantity is a defining environmental need. The conceptual framework of the workshop is that of "One Health", which posits that environmental, human, and wildlife health are closely intertwined, and the path to a sustainable future requires meeting human, economic, and environmental needs. The proposed workshop, scheduled for August 14-16, 2019, in Lubbock, TX, will engage researchers and other stakeholders from communities in the arid southwest to identify the needs of these communities and a path for research to meet those needs. Knowledge gained through the workshop can be applied to communities facing similar challenges. An important goal of the workshop is to build a foundation for a global Sustainable Urban Systems Research Network that can formulate a coordinated and convergent international research agenda to address the needs of small- to mid-size urban communities. This workshop is an opportunity to engage researchers, students, and stakeholders in identifying the requirements of and a path for research to meet those community needs. This workshop will bring together a multidisciplinary team of academics, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify challenges these communities face and potential research avenues to develop solutions for these challenges. The workshop also seeks to more effectively engage Native American and minority communities in the definition and conduct of research directed toward addressing the challenges faced by their communities. These sustainability challenges will be evaluated in each of the four workshop themes: Environmental Sustainability, Urban Design, Water, and Public Health. The Environmental Sustainability theme is focused on the problems of urban development in sync with the natural environment. The urban design theme, while complimenting the Environmental Sustainability theme, is more focused on how the design of the built environment respects the natural environment while meeting the needs for human habitat. The Water theme focuses on the common challenge that all arid regions face in meeting the water needs of the environment, human potable water needs, and water for the competing forces of agriculture, manufacturing, and energy development. The Public Health theme recognizes that the population in small cities and surrounding areas do not have easy access to health care, particularly mental health care, common in large cities. The four themes are each individually important, but all intersect in key ways that need to be explored in the contexts of long-term environmental sustainability and integration with the surrounding rural matrix.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

中小型城市中心（50,000至50万居民的人口）的可持续性越来越受到威胁。这些社区通常缺乏财务，技术和人力资源来充分解决这些威胁。中小型城市中心比受到更多关注的大城市更为普遍，并累积地充当更多人的家。此外，美国农村依靠小城市中心来推动农村经济并满足重要的基本需求，例如卫生服务。提出了一个讲习班，其总体目标是概念化面临许多城市中心的可持续性挑战，这些挑战是农村社区的骨干。此外，该研讨会将重点放在干旱和半干旱地区的城市中心，在这些区域中，有足够质量和数量的水是定义的环境需求。研讨会的概念框架是“一个健康”的概念框架，它认为环境，人类和野生动植物的健康紧密相互交织，通往可持续未来的道路需要满足人类，经济和环境需求。拟议的研讨会定于2019年8月14日至16日在德克萨斯州拉伯克（Lubbock）举行，将吸引来自西南干旱西南社区的研究人员和其他利益相关者，以确定这些社区的需求以及满足这些需求的研究途径。 通过研讨会获得的知识可以应用于面临类似挑战的社区。 研讨会的一个重要目标是为全球可持续的城市系统研究网络建立基础，该研究网络可以制定协调和融合的国际研究议程，以满足中小型城市社区的需求。 该研讨会是一个机会，可以让研究人员，学生和利益相关者确定满足这些社区需求的研究的要求和途径。该研讨会将汇集一个学者，从业者，决策者和其他利益相关者的跨学科团队，以确定这些社区面临的挑战和潜在的研究途径，以开发解决这些挑战的解决方案。该研讨会还旨在更有效地吸引美洲原住民和少数民族社区，以定义和进行研究，旨在应对其社区面临的挑战。这些可持续性挑战将在四个研讨会主题中的每个主题中进行评估：环境可持续性，城市设计，水和公共卫生。环境可持续性主题集中在与自然环境同步的城市发展问题上。城市设计主题在赞美环境可持续性主题的同时，更加集中于建筑环境的设计如何尊重自然环境，同时满足人栖息地的需求。水主题侧重于所有干旱地区在满足环境需求，人类饮用水需求以及为农业，制造业和能源开发竞争力量的水中所面临的共同挑战。公共卫生主题认识到，小城市和周边地区的人口不容易获得医疗保健，尤其是在大城市中常见的精神保健。这四个主题各自都很重要，但是所有主题都以关键方式相交，需要在长期的环境可持续性和与周围农村矩阵融合的背景下进行探索。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准进行评估。