Collaborative Research: Sustainability in the Food-Energy-Water nexus; integrated hydrologic modeling of tradeoffs between food and hydropower in large scale Chinese and US basins

合作研究：食品-能源-水关系的可持续性；

• 批准号: 2117393
• 负责人: Reed Maxwell
• 金额: $ 24.31万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2117393&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Sustainability; Food; Energy

Water is critical for growing food and generating power. This study deals with two globally important agricultural systems, the Heihe River Basin in China and the Central Valley of California, USA, that exemplify the complexities of large scale water-energy systems. The Heihe and the Central Valley represent billions of dollars in economic productivity and produce billions of kilowatt hours of electricity every year. While the two basins are in many ways similar (water flows from high in the mountains to nourish crops below), there are key differences in their history and management that provides many important information. This project brings together researchers from the US and China to better understand tradeoffs between water and energy supply in these complex agricultural systems. Advantage is taken of computer simulations, datasets and research from US and Chinese teams in their local basins and collaborate to advance our shared understanding of these basins. The state of the art computer simulation platforms developed and applied here are designed to capture connections between humans and natural systems not possible with previous modeling approaches. This project also seeks to educate the next generation of water users, planners and scientists on groundwater sustainability by developing K-12 education materials for both the US and China that will be piloted in real classrooms in both countries. This project will help us better understand weaknesses in managed food-water-energy systems like the Heihe and Central Valley to strengthen them moving forward. Water connects food production, energy demand and energy production in irrigated agricultural systems. Intensively managed basins routinely have surface water irrigation, groundwater irrigation and hydropower production operating in tandem. While there have been many operational studies of large scale irrigated systems, the majority of tools applied to these problems focus on the human systems and simplify the natural hydrology. This study bridges this gap developing novel tools that can simulate FEW interactions in complex human and natural systems. In this project leverage of international advances in physically based integrated numerical modeling is accomplished by bringing together two teams of modelers from the US and China. The goal is to explore the tradeoffs between agricultural water supply, hydropower production and environmental degradation in two globally important agricultural systems: the Central Valley of California (USA) and the Heihe River basin in China. Specifically, exploring (1) how the vulnerabilities of food and energy systems differ, (2) where conflicting interests can lead to system inefficiency and environmental degradation, and (3) the advantages of applying integrated hydrologic models to these human systems. The project also seeks to educate the next generation of water users, planners and scientists on groundwater sustainability. Project outputs will be used to develop K-12 education materials for both the US and China that will be piloted in real classrooms.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.

水对于种植食物和产生能力至关重要。 这项研究涉及两个全球重要的农业系统，即中国的赫伊伊河盆地和美国加利福尼亚州中部山谷，这些河流体现了大规模水能系统的复杂性。 赫伊伊和中央山谷代表数十亿美元的经济生产力，每年产生数十亿小时的电力。 尽管这两个盆地在许多方面都相似（从山上的水流到下面的滋养农作物），但其历史和管理上存在关键的差异，可以提供许多重要的信息。该项目汇集了美国和中国的研究人员，以更好地了解这些复杂的农业系统中水与能源供应之间的权衡。利用了我们和中国团队在本地盆地中的计算机模拟，数据集和研究的优势，并协作以促进我们对这些盆地的共识。 此处开发和应用的最先进的计算机仿真平台旨在捕获人与以前的建模方法之间无法使用的自然系统之间的联系。该项目还旨在通过为美国和中国开发K-12教育材料来教育下一代的用水用户，规划师和科学家在地下水可持续性上进行教育，这些材料将在两国的真实教室中进行试验。该项目将帮助我们更好地了解诸如heihe和Central Valley这样的托管食品水能系统的弱点，以增强它们的前进。 水连接灌溉农业系统中的粮食生产，能源需求和能源生产。 经常管理的盆地常规管理地表水灌溉，地下水灌溉和串联运营的水电生产。尽管大规模灌溉系统进行了许多运营研究，但用于这些问题的大多数工具都集中在人类系统上并简化自然水文学。这项研究桥接了这一差距开发的新型工具，可以模拟复杂的人类和自然系统中的几个相互作用。在这个项目的项目杠杆作用中，基于物理的综合数值建模是通过将来自美国和中国的两支建模者团队召集在一起来实现的。目的是探索在两个全球重要的农业系统中农业供水，水力发电生产和环境退化之间的权衡：加利福尼亚州中部（美国）和中国的希伊河盆地。具体而言，探索（1）食品和能源系统的脆弱性如何不同，（2）利益冲突可能导致系统效率低下和环境退化，以及（3）将综合水文模型应用于这些人类系统的优势。该项目还旨在教育下一代的用水用户，规划师和科学家就地下水的可持续性提供教育。项目产出将用于为美国和中国开发K-12教育材料，这些材料将在真实的教室中进行试验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来支持的。