NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Responding to Energy Insecurity in Arctic Housing Using a Community-Based Participatory Research

NNA 研究：合作研究：利用基于社区的参与性研究应对北极住房的能源不安全

• 批准号: 2220236
• 负责人: Kristen Cetin
• 金额: $ 171.89万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2220236&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NNA; Research; Collaborative; Responding; Energy

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. This Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observations, Education, Forecasting, and Resilient Infrastructure.This research seeks to address the substantial existing and emerging housing challenges that rural Alaskan communities currently face. Specifically, many homes in these communities are highly energy inefficient; many others were not designed for the harsh Alaskan climate; many are old and overcrowded. The high cost of electricity and heating fuel combined with these housing challenges makes many rural Alaskan homes highly energy burdened (i.e. a high percentage of household income is used for energy costs). The most vulnerable households are estimated to spend nearly half of their income on energy bills. These challenges are worsened by the changing climate conditions. Government-funded programs to improve the efficiency of homes have been ongoing for many years, however, in some cases these efficiency improvements are not being used by households, and/or are not performing as intended. There is currently limited research on why this occurs, and solutions that can help to address this. Therefore, this research seeks to, in collaboration with three rural Alaskan communities and a diversity of key non-profits and other stakeholders, identify better, more culturally appropriate ways to adapt rural Alaskan housing to alleviate energy burden. Many will benefit from the results of this effort, including Alaskan homeowners, society as a whole, and the scientific community. Specifically, current and future homeowners in these communities will benefit from energy efficiency programs that are better designed to fit their cultural values and interests, making the homeowners more likely to benefit from participation. This will also improve the wellbeing of communities by reducing stresses related to energy costs through methods that support socio-cultural and environmental connections. Society will benefit from programs designed to achieve the maximum long-term energy and emissions reductions, thus maximizing the benefits of the use of public money. The scientific community will benefit from this research through the better understanding of key factors influencing the long-term success of energy efficiency improvements. The proposed research effort seeks to answer the following research questions: How can existing Alaska Native housing be adapted to better alleviate energy insecurity? How effective are existing energy efficiency retrofit methods, and how can they be improved to reduce long-term energy burden? The response to these research questions is obtained using a community-based participatory research in the villages of Unalakleet, Nome, and Quinhagak. Through six interlinked tasks, the research team will collaboratively develop improvement strategies that incorporate cultural beliefs and values, field data collection, and integrated building energy models which together address identified causes of energy burden for existing housing. Task 1 will establish the methods for knowledge co-production and collaboration with the communities. Task 2 will use climate model outputs and surface weather station data along with community interviews, to construct future climate scenarios for each community. Task 3 will assess the characteristics, efficiency, and long-term performance of homes, including those with and without retrofits. Through buildings validated energy models, it will also quantify the factors driving energy burden, and the impacts energy efficiency improvements have had on energy burden. Task 4 will assess the cultural values and beliefs that members of rural Alaskan communities have around energy use and energy efficient technology, resulting in an understanding of cultural barriers and opportunities for energy efficiency improvement implementation. Task 5 will identify retrofit strategies which both reduce energy burden considering future climate scenarios, and fit Alaska Native cultural values and beliefs. It will also recommend the need for improvements to energy efficiency implementation, including design changes and/or energy education. The final task will develop energy engineering curriculum which will be implemented in K-12 and higher education 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.

航行新北极 (NNA) 是 NSF 的 10 大创意之一。 NNA 项目解决快速变化的北极地区的融合科学挑战。这项北极研究需要为国家、更大地区和全球的经济、安全和复原力提供信息。 NNA 授权从地方到国际范围内的新研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正规和非正规教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合知识的共同生产。该奖项通过解决以下 NNA 重点领域中社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现该目标的一部分：北极居民、数据和观测、教育、预测和弹性基础设施。这项研究旨在解决现有的大量问题阿拉斯加农村社区目前面临的新的住房挑战。具体来说，这些社区中的许多家庭能源效率非常低；许多其他的设计并不适合阿拉斯加的恶劣气候；许多地方都已经旧了而且人满为患。电力和取暖燃料的高昂成本加上这些住房挑战使得许多阿拉斯加农村家庭的能源负担沉重（即家庭收入的很大一部分用于能源成本）。据估计，最脆弱的家庭将其收入的近一半用于能源费用。气候条件的变化加剧了这些挑战。政府资助的提高家庭效率的计划已持续多年，然而，在某些情况下，这些效率改进措施并未被家庭使用，和/或未按预期发挥作用。目前，关于这种情况发生的原因以及有助于解决此问题的解决方案的研究有限。因此，本研究旨在与三个阿拉斯加农村社区以及各种主要非营利组织和其他利益相关者合作，找出更好、更适合文化的方法来改造阿拉斯加农村住房，以减轻能源负担。许多人将从这项努力的成果中受益，包括阿拉斯加的房主、整个社会和科学界。具体来说，这些社区当前和未来的房主将受益于更适合其文化价值观和兴趣的能源效率计划，使房主更有可能从参与中受益。这还将通过支持社会文化和环境联系的方法减少与能源成本相关的压力，从而改善社区的福祉。社会将从旨在实现最大限度的长期能源和排放减排的计划中受益，从而最大限度地利用公共资金带来效益。通过更好地了解影响能源效率改进长期成功的关键因素，科学界将从这项研究中受益。拟议的研究工作旨在回答以下研究问题：如何改造现有的阿拉斯加原住民住房以更好地缓解能源不安全？现有的能源效率改造方法的效果如何？如何改进这些方法以减轻长期能源负担？这些研究问题的答案是通过在 Unalakleet、Nome 和 Quinhagak 村庄进行的社区参与性研究获得的。通过六项相互关联的任务，研究团队将协作制定改进策略，其中纳入文化信仰和价值观、现场数据收集和综合建筑能源模型，共同解决现有住房能源负担的已确定原因。任务 1 将建立与社区共同生产知识和协作的方法。 任务 2 将使用气候模型输出和地面气象站数据以及社区访谈，为每个社区构建未来的气候情景。任务 3 将评估房屋的特征、效率和长期性能，包括经过改造和未经改造的房屋。通过建筑物验证的能源模型，它还将量化驱动能源负担的因素，以及能源效率改进对能源负担的影响。任务 4 将评估阿拉斯加农村社区成员对能源使用和节能技术的文化价值观和信仰，从而了解文化障碍和实施能源效率改进的机会。任务 5 将确定改造策略，既考虑未来气候情景，减少能源负担，又符合阿拉斯加原住民的文化价值观和信仰。它还将建议改进能源效率实施的必要性，包括设计变更和/或能源教育。最终任务将开发能源工程课程，该课程将在 K-12 和高等教育课堂中实施。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。